# Council Work Session - December 1, 2009 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · December 1, 2009 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/1141 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/1141?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2009-12-01 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: June 18, 2026 - **Length**: 33,149 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened for a meeting presided over by Mayor Newberry. The session featured two agenda items, both informational in nature: a presentation on the Red Mile Project and a report from the Mayor's Commission on Mortgage Lending Practices. Over the course of the meeting, the Council heard from 5 public commenters and conducted 2 votes. No final legislative actions or approvals were recorded among the agenda items, as both items were presented for informational purposes only. ## Attendance The following members were present at the December 1, 2009 Council meeting: - Mayor Newberry - Vice Mayor Gray - Council Member James - Council Member Stinnett - Council Member Lawless - Council Member Blues - Council Member Henson - Council Member Meyers - Council Member Martin - Council Member McCord - Council Member Crosby - Council Member Gordon - Council Member Lane - Council Member Ellinger **Absent:** Council Member Beard and Council Member Feigel No members were recorded as arriving late. A total of 14 members were present out of 16, constituting a strong quorum for the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions Two voice votes were taken during the December 1, 2009 Council meeting. Neither vote was a roll call, so individual member tallies are not available. - **Tabling of Rules and Procedures Resolution** [timestamp: 2:08:26]: Council Member Lane moved, with a second from Council Member Ellinger, to table a resolution related to the rules and procedures of the Urban County Council until the first meeting in January. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Placing Oath of Office Ordinance on the Docket** [timestamp: 2:24:26]: Council Member Myers moved, with a second from Council Member Blues, to place on the docket an ordinance that would require appointees to boards, agencies, and commissions to take an oath of office. The motion passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions During the December 1, 2009 Council meeting, one significant financial item was presented for consideration: - **Legacy Trail and Downtown Streetscape Grant:** The Council addressed a grant from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet totaling **$6,375,000**. The funding was designated to support two separate infrastructure initiatives: phases one and two of the Legacy Trail Project, as well as the Downtown Streetscape Project. No specific resolution number or individual vendor/recipient was identified in connection with this item. No additional budget amendments, appropriations, or other financial actions were recorded for this meeting. ## Public Comment Five members of the public addressed the Council during the public comment period, all speaking in support of the Distillery District. [timestamp: 2:48:45] - **Jessica Case** opened the public comment period by emphasizing the economic benefits of the Distillery District, specifically highlighting its potential for job creation and tax revenue generation. [timestamp: 2:48:45] - **Clark Case** followed, speaking to the current reality and future potential of the Distillery District. He noted the project's ability to attract visitors and generate revenue for the community. [timestamp: 2:51:56] - **Nathan Kryder** addressed the Council regarding what he described as overwhelming community support for the Distillery District. He also spoke to the project's potential to attract the creative class to the area. [timestamp: 2:55:22] - **Dan Roland**, representing Progress Lexington, argued that the Distillery District aligns with his organization's values of economic growth and community engagement. [timestamp: 3:00:54] - **Griffin Van Meter** closed the public comment period with remarks supporting the Distillery District, emphasizing both its economic development potential and its role in cultural preservation. [timestamp: 3:04:06] No speakers appeared in opposition to the Distillery District during this public comment period. All five commenters addressed the same topic, reflecting a unified message of community support for the project's economic and cultural merits. ## Contested Items - **Resolution on Council Rules and Procedures**: A resolution concerning the rules and procedures of the Urban County Council generated procedural disagreement among members during the meeting. A motion was made to table the resolution until the first meeting in January, reflecting differing opinions among council members about the appropriate timing and content of the proposed changes. The structured data does not specify which individual members were involved in the dispute or the precise nature of the proposed rule changes. The outcome of the motion to table was not detailed in the available data, though the motion itself indicates that at least some members were not prepared to move forward with the resolution at the December 1, 2009 meeting. ## Presentation on the Red Mile Project [timestamp: 1:33:18] The Council received an informational presentation on the Red Mile Project, covering development plans that included mixed-use development and infrastructure improvements for the area. Key speakers for this item were **Stan Harvey** and **Jeff Yost**, who led the presentation before the Council. The presentation was informational in nature, and no formal action or vote was taken as a result. ## Mayor's Commission on Mortgage Lending Practices [timestamp: 27:58] Dr. Judy Jackson appeared before the Council to present findings from the Mayor's Commission on Mortgage Lending Practices. The presentation focused on mortgage lending disparities and included recommendations aimed at addressing the issues identified by the Commission. Dr. Jackson's presentation highlighted disparities in mortgage lending practices and put forward recommendations centered on financial literacy programs as a means of addressing those disparities. The item was informational in nature, and no formal vote or action was taken by the Council as a result of the presentation. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Move to place on the docket an ordinance requiring appointees to boards, agencies, and commissions to take an oath of office. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to table the resolution related to rules and procedures of Urban County Council until the first meeting in January. --- ## Full transcript Let's go ahead and call the meeting to order, please. Let's call the meeting to order, if we could. As, as I indicated to, uh, members of the council during the last work session yesterday and today, we've had the privilege of having a guest here in town from Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Executive Director Adrian Ellis. Mr. Ellis is, uh, supposed to catch a plane here in just a little bit, but, um, I'd like to have him speak briefly to the council here on the front end, if we could, for four or five minutes, just to tell you a little bit about what he's doing, what the potentials are, and- and what he has seen. So Mr. Ellis, if you'll step to the podium. This is the podium? That's it. Right. That's it. Uh, thank you. Thank you very much. And, um, uh, I will be brief, because I know you've got, uh, uh, uh, more important business to conduct. But, um, I was invited by, uh, Mayor Newberry to come here, because Jazz at Lincoln Center, uh, which is a constituent of, uh, of Lincoln Center in New York has a, um, a very, uh, active education and outreach program around the states. And over the last couple of years, we've been thinking about how to consolidate that in residences in s- uh, cities, uh, around, uh, around America. And, uh, Mayor Newberry invited me, because, um, uh, when I went to address the Council of Mayors about some of these ideas about two or three months ago, uh, he thought there might be a synergy between Jazz at Lincoln Center's ambitions and, uh, and, uh, Lexington. So, um, I came here. I arrived yesterday morning, um, a- a little over 24 hours ago, uh, and since then have been running around, um, uh, with, uh, uh, a- a fantastic entourage, I have to say, of, um, uh, the mayor's colleagues, uh, to meet representatives of the university, to meet the superintendent of Lafayette, um, public school system, uh, to go and see some jazz, which is pretty important in all this. We went to, um, a comedy, off-Broadway last night, where, um, uh, there was a fantastic big band playing that plays there, um, uh, on Mondays once a month. And we have just come back from, um, Dunbar High School, uh, where, uh, the, uh, university, um, uh, ensemble was playing for the school students there. And I have to say, I've been deeply impressed by, uh, everything that I've seen. Um, uh, the, uh, uh, I've, uh, the mayor asked me to chara- characterize my impressions of my visit, and that's difficult to synthesize them this rapidly, but I would say that, uh, uh, apart from the- the welcome being a very warm one, it's also a very intelligent one and a very strategic one. And although I think it's difficult to say at this stage exactly what, uh, might emerge, I- I am very enthusiastic, and I'm sure that when I report back to my board, they will be equally enthusiastic about, uh, trying to plot out some sort of relationship between Jazz at Lincoln Center, uh, and the city, uh, in a way that, um, uh, is useful and engaging, uh, to the city, and helps us in our very simple ma- mission of trying to proselytize, if you like, for jazz and develop audiences for jazz. Whether that takes place in the form of, uh, a residency for the orchestra, whether that might take place in- in- in terms of, uh, uh, stronger relationships with band directors in the schools, whether it's these and other things. We can, uh ... What I think we will do is, uh, both parties go away and think about what we've learned over the- the last day and try and put together some plans that we can then plot through. But certainly from ... Uh, uh, I can only say that from, uh, my perspective, it was, um, a whirlwind tour that was more than worth, uh, the time, and I am profoundly grateful to the mayor and to his colleagues for putting together such a- an intelligent itinerary. So thank you very much, indeed. Thank you very much. We look forward to having you back. Appreciate you being here. Look forward to coming back. All right, we'll, uh, head down the agenda now. Uh, is there anyone who wishes to comment on issues that are on today's agenda? Okay. We have none? Um, we have one special item bus- item of business that, um, um, I think Commissioner Askew addressed with the council members earlier today by email, and that is we need to schedule a police disciplinary proceeding. Um, Mr. Horne is here. You might want to give us a little background, if you would, so that we can, uh, try to reach a hearing date for you. Well, under the collective bargaining agreement, you have a timeframe to schedule this hearing. The latest date you can schedule this hearing for is January 13th. All right. And do we have any idea approximately how long the hearing might take? The- the best I can tell you is probably three to six hours. All right. Um- Hopefully not that long, but it's... A- and I understand that there is a possibility they might request a hearing date within three days of the time on which, the time at which the charges are filed. Is that correct? That's true. I have not been contacted by an attorney for the police officer. It is possible that eventually they will contact me and say either they need more time to get ready for a hearing or that they would like to have it continued. That wouldn't necessarily be unusual, but I can't promise that that date is going to change. We have to assume that the date we set will be the date that we actually have the hearing. All right. And my, um, my understanding is that we have a council meeting scheduled both for this Thursday evening as well as next Tuesday evening, and then we don't have any meetings scheduled after that until January. So, um, let me throw out a couple of alternative dates just for purposes of getting the discussion going. Uh, Thursday evenings are typically our meeting date. Would it be acceptable to schedule it either on December 10th or 17th? Th- The third we have a, we have a council meeting. So, um, could I just sort of see a show of hands about who might find it convenient to do it on the 10th? Well, let's schedule it on the 10th . Sorry. All right, how about the 17th? Yes. In the evening, 7:00, probably 6:00, something like that. 17th? 17th? Not having much luck. I'm open for suggestion, then. We- we could do it in January before the 13th, did you say? Correct. The 13th would be the end gate. You've got to get me in before the 13th. Which may be the week that you're back. I'm not sure. I don't have your calendar. It is, it is. How about the 7th of January? Thursday evening? Monday the 11th. Show of hands if you can be here on the 11th. We're making a little progress here. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. No, January 11th. Let me say, I have no objection to having this during the day . Okay. Now that might be, that might be... Would it be preferable from the council standpoint to do it during the day? Maybe on a Tuesday? Well, I mean, after the, after the 8th, we don't have anything else scheduled, so maybe would the 15th work? December? Or excu- Yes, December. December. December- December the 15th? Who would- Who could be here December 15th? All right, looks like the 11th is the best option right now. January 11th. J- No. Um, during the evening. This is, uh, far more complicated than I would have anticipated. Um, would it be possible if Ms. Langston tried to get a sense of the schedules from everybody? Would that work? And could we maybe set it at your meeting Thursday night? If you can't set it right now, could we set it at your meeting Thursday night? I think we could. Is that... Okay. The 11th appears... Councilmember Lane. I don't need a time, so they don't... That would certainly suit me, and I suspect most everybody else. Well, let- let- let me see if we got... Don't hold me to that three hours though. I understand. If we've got a quorum on the 11th at 3:00, let's try to go ahead and get that. If you can be here at 3:00 on the 11th, let's see. January 11th. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Let's do it then. January 11th, 3:00 PM. Thank you. Thank you. It ought to get easier from there. All right. We're now ready to move on with the docket approval. Is there a motion to approve the December 3rd- So moved. ... docket? So moved. I have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you. I've got a motion by Council Member Crosby, a second by Council Member Gordon. Any discussion? Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. Um, on several of these items, and since this has been my first time going through the bonding process, um, I'm realizing when, uh, we looked at our bond list, when it says budgeted, um, that doesn't necessarily mean that we have the money for it or that it's... Could someone explain some of that? Are you, are you talking about approving the docket now or are you talking about new business items? Oh. Nevermind. All right. Thank you. I'm very sorry. My bad. The issue before us is the approval of December 3rd's docket. I have a motion and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approving the docket, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Council Member Bluers. All right, we can take that up now. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket for the Thursday, December 3, 2009 meeting an ordinance authorizing the mayor to accept a grant from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in the amount of $6,375,000 federal funds arising from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for phases one and two of the Legacy Trail Project and the Downtown Streetscape Project and appropriating funds pursuant to schedule number 0097. So moved. I have a second. I have a motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor of adding that item to the docket, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Anything further with regard to the docket? We'll move along then. We have a summary to approve. Is there a motion to approve the November 24? So moved. Council Member Crosby's moved the approval of the November 24th docket, uh, summary rather and, uh, Council Member Gordon has seconded that motion. Is there any discussion? All in favor then, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Mary, uh, Mayor. I said Mary. Council Member James. Um, I'd like to note my, um, abstention on that. I was not present and haven't had a chance to review the meeting, so I'm not sure if it's right or not. All right. Thanks. Madam Clerk, if you'll note Council Member James' exten- uh, abstention. We have some budget amendments. Move approval. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon and a second by Council Member Crosby to approve the budget amendments. Is there any discussion? Council Member Hinson. Mayor, I have a motion. I move that, uh, budget journal 38851 be removed from consideration of budget journals on page 10 of the work session packet. This item for fire and emergency services provides funds for Bluegrass Emergency Response Team and does not require council approval. So moved. I have a motion by Council Member Hinson and a s- pardon me, a second by Council Member, uh, Crosby to amend the budget amendments by deleting journal item 38851. Any discussion on the amendment? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We're now ready to discuss the budget amendments list as amended. Any further discussion? All in favor then of approving the budget amendment list as amended, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And that now takes us down to the new business items. Is there a motion to approve? Move approval. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon and a second by Council Member Ellinger to approve the new business items. And is there a discussion? Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. I think I'm in the right place now, on the right page. Um, going through the exercise of bonding, um, it would be helpful when they say these items are budgeted, are they budgeted and there's money available or are they budgeted and we're gonna decide whether or not we're gonna bond them? Well, let's talk about a specific example because it may or may not be an issue that's going to be bonded. Okay. Um, oh. Sorry about that. Um, the, uh, funds are budgeted. Um, I, I mean, what I noticed is when we were going through our bonding list, there were a lot of items that had been budgeted, but not bonded. And so I would like to better understand that if, if I could, if... Thank you. Uh, one thing I might point out to you, in the packet on page 19, we have a budget information for new business items that might help you distinguish which ones are bond funds and which items are not bond funded. Um, that won't go t- specifically to your question of whether or not a bond fund- ... has been approved to be bonded or not. But item B is grant funds and general fund dollars, and you can see listed, um, the only item on this list that included bond funds was item P. But that's -- that's one way, and we include that in their packet for you, um, so that's a -- at least a short glance at what -- what the funding source is. Okay. So, uh, item P, um, is in the 2009 bond projects. Has it already been bond approved? Um, I would have to defer that part to the Commissioner of Finance. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I'm actually gonna defer to my friend over here, uh, Commissioner Webb, um, because in general, what we're talking about on Thursday night, none of that is included here. So, Mike, do you wanna talk about what is included? A- and you can ... It might be helpful if you'll stay there with that list. The -- the -- this is part of the South Limestone project, and whenever the monies were approved for that, the cost of this contract had already been estimated and was included in that project budget. And it does not show up on -- on this list because, as I understood it, this included projects that didn't have -- that were bonded but had not had extensive spending against those, or the projects weren't down the line in construction. So this would ... This money's -- these monies were in the original project budget that was approved for South Limestone Street. Okay. Uh, thank you. It's a steep learning curve, so thank you very much. All right. Any further discussion on the new business items? Those then in favor of approving the new business items, please indicate by saying, "Ay." Those no, motion carries. We are now down to, uh, the presentations. The first is from the Intergovernmental Committee. Council Member, uh, James. Thank you, Mayor. If I may ask to be deferred until, uh, towards the end of presentations, the law department is still working on part of my presentation for Inter Gov. Thanks. That will ... There's no objection. We'll do that. All right. Planning Committee is, uh, the next item on the agenda. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. The Planning Committee met November 24th. The first item on our business was the information technology system linking building inspection and code enforcement, and we received a brief update on the progress for this link. Uh, the cost is estimated to be about $2 million. The idea is that there would be, uh, an IT way to link all of the, um, code enforcement and building inspection actions on one property, so that both building inspection and code enforcement could see what was going on with each property. Um, the second issue was the, um, continuation of the student housing task force recommendations. The first recommendation we discussed was rental licensing, and before a motion could be taken on that, a motion was made to refer to the building inspection task force the issue of safety inspections, including issues related to building inspection, code enforcement, and the fire department. So the motion is to refer those to building inspection task force. Second. Have a motion and second to refer those items to the building inspection task force. Any discussion? All in favor, say, "Ay." Ay. Those, no. Motion carries. So the discussion continued about rental licensing, and just as a report only, uh, the motion by Council Member Ellinger was to adopt a rental licensing ordinance, and this motion did fail to get out of committee. The next recommendation was to adopt portions of the Ohio State plan, thereby creating an office of off-campus housing at UK. And Tom Harris, who is the UK Vice President of University Relations, updated the committee on their plan to, um, to fill a position for an off-campus housing office and to fund it, and that is moving forward. Um, let's see. The next motion that the committee passed and that I bring today is to endorse the concept of a student housing initiative partnership program, which was presented by Officer Keith Gaines. So moved. Moved. I have a motion by Council Member Gordon and a second by Council Member Henson. Any discussion? All in favor, say, "Ay." Ay. Those, no. Motion carries. The fourth recommendation was to consider an off-campus housing fee to be paid by the University of Kentucky and the Bluegrass Community and Technical College students to fund initiatives for off-campus housing. And, uh, Tom Harris told the committee that UK does not support this, and there was no motion. The next recommendation was to revise the definition of family in the zoning ordinance, and the following recommendation was to amend ordinances to prohibit parking in rear yards except on approved surfaces that are permeable in compliance with other ordinances. So, those two recommendations, uh, the motion is to address those two recommendations at a future planning committee meeting. So moved. We have a motion by Council Member Gordon, second by Council Member Blues. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed no, motion carries. Uh, the next recommendation of the Student Housing Task Force was to create a university district overlay zone with modified zoning restrictions, increased enforcement, and this would be funded by a special taxing district and no motion was made on that recommendation. Uh, the next recommendation, um, is that, uh, the University of Kentucky, uh, Kentucky's Tony Blanton will be working with our law department to draft a definition of fraternity and sorority house for our zoning ordinance consideration. And then, uh, finally, the committee removed, uh, two items, um, having to do with, um, zoning and restrictions on permits. Those have already been addressed and then the following motion is the final motion, to place reasonable time limits for completion of construction projects approved for existing, um, fa- family residential building permits and fence retaining wall permits. This will be transferred to the Building Inspection Task Force. So moved. Second. Have a motion in second. Any discussion? Council Member Lane. Uh, Council Member Gordon, I wanted at the meeting, what is a reasonable time for that? Uh, did you discuss reasonable time? We did not discuss this issue at all in detail. We discussed that it would be more appropriately heard in the Building Inspection Task Force. Okay. That's the, the motion to move it. All right, thank you. Mm-hmm. Any further discussion? All in favor of transferring that to the- Building Inspection Task Force. ... Building Inspection Task Force, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed no, motion carries. And that completes my report. Thank you. All right, uh, it is now my pleasure to welcome to the podium Dr. Judy Jackson, who is, um, a member of the staff at the University of Kentucky. And JJ, as she is known to most of us, has chaired a commission we put together on a mortgage lending practices and she has a presentation for us about the findings of that group. So, Dr. Jackson. Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, Council Members, thank you very much for inviting us to present to you today the results of our meetings, following up on your request for us to look into mortgage lending practices in Fayette County. There are several members of the commission here with me today, and, um, at the end of this presentation, we would like to engage you in a conversation that hopefully eventually will lead to, um, better systems for the citizens of Fayette County when it comes to mortgage lending practices. There were four primary charges that the commission was concerned with, guided largely in part by findings of a study from the Human Rights Commission. The mayor asked us to focus on two of these, and they were to look at financial literacy programs for their adequacy and accessibility to the population that needs them, and to look at ethical mortgage lenders and think of ways to have them step forward to provide the financial services to the broader community. We thought in order to understand these two charges, we needed to take a look at aspects of the population, so we looked at per capita income in the state of Kentucky and in Fayette County and found great disparity by ethnic group. And in Fayette County, you will see that the per capita income for the white citizens of Fayette County is almost double that of African-Americans. Other ethnic groups also make substantially less. We also looked at the poverty levels in the state, as well as homeownership, and statewide, uh, statistics show that the poverty level in Kentucky is about 17%, whereas among African-Americans it's about 30%. We've rounded these figures to the nearest whole. And as we consider homeownership levels, it's obvious that African-Americans, Hispanics are far less likely to own their homes than other groups in the population in the county. Now, when we think about homeownership, per capita income, and the way that our citizens dispense their disposable income, we looked at the number of unbanked households. That is to say, households do- that do not, uh, take care of their financial, um, needs through established organizations such as banks and credit unions, and found there to be over 8,000 of them. Um, we found that there are about 124 banks and credit union branches throughout the county, and 16 non-bank cash, check, uh, check cashers, 31 payday lenders, and 10 pawn shops. Now, when you think about the information that we just shared, we find that the lower the family income, the more likely is the presence of non-bank, non-credit union service providers in the community. So, in low income communities, we find that there are 50% of the alternative financial services providers stationing themselves where low-income citizens live versus only two and a half percent where high income residents live, to give you the two extremes of the polls. When we look at neighborhoods containing these financial services branches, we find that check cashers and predatory lenders are more likely to establish themselves in low to moderate income neighborhoods. And in our view, these potential customers are least able to afford the services of these alternative financial providers, but they are more susceptible to using them. So that, in low income neighborhoods, we find 47% of, um, to, versus 53% of these alternative, uh, service providers, the county-wide averages being what you see there, on the board. As we discuss the implications of these findings and talked about the counseling that we think citizens need to understand fine print, um, non-published aspects of their financial agreements when they endeavor to borrow money to buy their own homes, there are a number of agencies in the area that provide counseling, but their capacity is limited to make the connection between the clients and reputable financial institutions. These agencies themselves have inadequate funding to provide the services that they think are needed. And the problem is made worse by the fact that there are fewer banks and reputable lending institutions prevalent in the low-income neighborhoods, so that counseling agencies are hard put to make these connections between low-income citizens and reputable lending institutions that might help them with home ownership. Additionally, there's a big gap in the level of lending between what size mortgage a bank will allow and the size mortgage that mortgage companies will allow. The banks, of course, granting smaller loans. We recognized a need for financial literacy programs that would encourage ethical lenders and offer ways to connect them with potential buyers in low to moderate income brackets. And we also recognized that there's a growing number of home buyers or potential home buyers who are now seeking to refinance, and we also recognize that there is a number of potential, uh, homeowners, current or potential, who need counseling but are not ready to admit that they do. Um, and these are some of the personal social issues that, of course, we can't get into people's personal lives, but we realize that if someone won't accept the reality that they need some counseling in order to make wise decisions, then we're only exacerbating the problem. So, as we thought about recommendations that we might present to council to help to address some of these issues, we recognize that if it's everybody's job to do it, then it's nobody's job to do it, because the responsibility will rest with no designated person. So, our first recommendation is to appoint a housing commissioner or identify a single-point contact person or agency who would serve the population on a full-time daily basis. We thought that this agency might have responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of an anti-predatory lending campaign, and our estimate of 130 to $140,000 annually takes a salary, a commissioner's salary into account, plus if this, if it's a new office, space, overhead, operating expenses, and support staff of an appropriate level. And I'm just going through these recommendations, and when I'm done, then we'll return for conversation if that's okay with you. Our second recommendation was to create a fund from the general fund contributions and other sources that might be used for providing counseling to clients at any income level, recognizing that not only do low to moderate income potential homeowners need counseling, others may need it as well. And the more people who are educated in the nuances of borrowing money, then the more prepared our citizens are to protect their own financial wellbeing. And we estimate about $40,000 annually to establish such a fund to help the counseling agencies to dispense their responsibilities. We also think that, um, we would urge the mayor's office to explore the possibility of selling G-26 mortgage loans and explore the feasibility of creating alternatives to payday lending. Now, you might notice that the membership on the commission was included, um, realtors, bankers, um, civic organizations, nonprofit organizations that help with counseling, et cetera. And as I said before, some of the members of the commission are here, so when we, um, get a chance to discuss some of these recommendations with you, then we can go into greater detail about what some of our thoughts were on these recommendations. Some of the council member, um, commission members talked about a project that happened some years ago called Don't Borrow Trouble, and we thought that resurrecting that or a similar work group would be, um, a helpful thing. It could be part of a housing commissioner's job if such an office were established, um, and we estimated a need of about $3,500 to resurrect that project. We thought it critical to provide training classes for realtors, so that they could be more effective for their clients. We foresaw a nominal expense associated with this particular recommendation because if the class is constituted part of the counseling and training program already, then that would only strengthen the services that realtors provide for potential home buyers. Our seventh recommendation was to make strategic and effective use of the web to disseminate information, including the creation of a frequently asked questions list, perhaps a hotline, and an opportunity for real-time chat with an agent for potential home buyers to ask the kinds of questions, clear up misunderstandings and confusion that they might have in preparing to become homeowners. This activity could become a strategic part of the website's existing agencies, or it could become part of a housing commissioner, were such an office to be established. And then we thought about linking banks with counseling programs by creating an incentive for potential home buyers to complete the counseling program before they consummated, um, a mortgage loan. This activity could become, again, a strategic part of websites that folks could take themselves through, um, at their own pace. It could also be part of the Housing Commissioner's own office. We thought it imperative that we begin early, um, in the county to try to educate our youth in understanding finances, simple finances, such as balancing a checkbook, through understanding the nuances of borrowing money for such a major undertaking as owning a home. And the more people we have understanding this process, then the readier our citizens are, again, to protect themselves financially. So, we thought that through, um, existing agencies, the school system, and other ways that we are yet to identify, we might somehow implement, um, a youth financial education program. And our last recommendation was to create a good lender rating scale and scorecard that borrowers can use to help inform and protect themselves from predatory lending, and if we develop such a scale and scorecard, it could become also part of a housing commissioner's office. This campaign, as well as effective counseling when working together, um, could help full transparency to occur so that customers, potential borrowers are not unwittingly getting themselves into bad situations and finding it's too late after they've signed on the dotted line that they're now in a financial situation that they can't afford to be in, and we would be further exacerbating the problem and victimizing our citizens. That's our presentation in a nutshell, and we are eager to engage you in conversation about some of these possibilities. We did have an opportunity to meet earlier with, um, Mayor Newberry, and, um, we realize that the county, the state, the country is under financial siege right now, and we didn't expect miracles, but we thought that before we could begin to address some of these issues, we needed to take this candid look at our population and understand some of the disparities, uh, particularly economic and educational disparities. And I would like to add, taking the liberty to speak for the commission, that we see this as interwoven with the help of the entire county, its educational systems, its financial processes, commerce, civic, the whole nine yards, and that's why we thought that the education and youth program would be so important, and that's why it was such an honor for me to have been asked by you to chair this commission as, um, a member of the UK family, because UK appreciates its role in the community and its responsibility to the health of the community as well. Thank you. I failed to mention on the front end that, that Dr. Jackson is UK's Vice President for Institutional Diversity. I believe that's the correct title, is it not? It is. And, um, we are very grateful for the support which you and the other members of the commission have, uh, provided us in trying to identify the problems and some of the solutions. I think the recommendations are excellent. ... um, as you correctly note, there's some price tags associated with some of them that we'll have to deal with as part of the budget process, but I very much appreciate the work which you and all the members of the commission, some of whom are here today, have done, and, um, we thank you for that. Are there questions for Dr. Jackson? Uh, Council Member Stinnet. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for everyone who served on that, uh, task force. Uh, we appreciate your, your input and your presentation today- Uh huh. ... because, uh, I think over the long run, it's gonna provide a valuable resource to look back on, that this is what ca- you know, pushed the ball forward and, and got us started down the right path. Couple of questions I had for you 'cause this is, you know, I do financial advising for a living other than being here 40 hours a week. Um, a- and I think, you know, when I counsel people on their budgeting and things and financial literacy, as you explained too on your slide, the big difference between what I do and sometimes programs out there do is I follow up with my clients. I'm with them for ve- almost, sometimes the rest of their life pretty much, uh, working with them. What wa- in you all's discussion did you talk about 'cause it's one thing to get someone in a house. It's one thing to say, "Hey, let, let's work on your credit. Let's clean it up. Let's get 'em in the house." But, but who is following up on them once they get in the house? Because what you see is they go back to the bad habits or someone else preys on them and says, "Hey, you can get another credit card, or you can do this now. You can buy a new car now that you got a house. We can take the equity in it." So where did you... Did you all talk about that issue? 'Cause I think that's really where the problem hits hardest is we can get you in the house, but it's staying in the house long term. Right. Yes, we did discuss that issue and, uh, for us before we get to getting them in the house, we talked about the importance of the counseling and having citizens understand, as I said before, the nuances of going through a financial process, arriving at such a big decision. And home ownership is probably one of the biggest financial decisions most of us ever make, and it's really critical to understand it. That's why we thought it was important to understand the, the demographics of our population. Because when you think about it, less than eight percent of the population in Kentucky is African American, one percent Hispanic, one percent Asian, two percent... and I'm forgetting some of the, the details of it. But those numbers, before they grow bigger, are still small enough for us to create programs that can help to educate a large number of such a small minority of people and to help them understand that payday lenders actually cripple their ability to be on top of their finances. So before we get to the house part, we wanna get to the counseling part. We want to reach as many citizens as possible from the young to the oldest, uh, in the market for a house or potentially in the market for a house or other major financial decisions that they may be about to make. Part of the problem, and I will invite some of my colleagues, um, to comment on this if they choose to, but part of the problem is that identifying the folks who are potential mortgage borrowers, um, looking for ways to identify who they are, where are they, and then accessing them and then having them to access the counseling that is available, even though right now the agencies are stretched to provide to all th- the potential borrowers who need it the counseling that they could provide because they have to go outside of their own neighborhoods to look for other resources to provide counseling within the neighborhoods that they serve. So, Chris, would you like to add anything to that? So, so before Chris comes up there, uh, so you're looking at counseling before and after? Yes. How, how long after? I mean, are we loo- are there programs or are you suggesting we design a program that, that continually stays with people once we've- Yeah. ... they've initiated the program or... Well, first of all, I wouldn't try to fool you that we have all the answers. No. Um, we, we just, this is just the beginning. I think that the best answer would be, um, for as long as it reasonably is practical. We realize that you can't go on forever. Sure. You know, you don't want your kids to stay home forever raising them until they have their kids. So it's something analogous to that. You want to give them the basic information that they need, make sure that they understand that information, make sure that they're capable of using it, and then perhaps set up check and balance processes that have us touching base with those citizens in some reasonable way to ensure ourselves and them that they're still on top of understanding the financial process that they're involved in. I know we support a organization, outside organization, through this government that follows up after a first year in a house. Exactly. Exactly. They try to make sure they're still on track. Exactly, and depending on whether or not it's possible to establish a housing commissioner, a housing commissioning office could take something like that on to establish periodic checkups through the website, through the lending institutions themselves and through other outlets that the consumers might access. There may be opportunities for periodic checkups, almost like checking your insurance. So when your insurance comes due, check on your financial situation. Is what you put in place still operating for you or are there adjustments that might need to be made? Something like that. And the other thing is incentives on mortgages. You know, even lowering the rate after you stay in your home three years if you've made it that far financially. You know, there, there was a lot of creative things we can start looking at. One last thing. Um, did... How many other organizations did you all, did you look at or, or talk to in our community? Did you all compile a list of, you know, the LBAR? You know, I know they do a lot of counseling for, for home buyers and realtors. Um, you know, REACH, um, that, that Minister Ford's with. Road to Home Ownership. Did you all talk to these other organizations at all through your process? Yes, many of them were around the table. Good. We invited some of them to the meetings and had conversations with them- ... during the meetings themselves. And it's unfortunate today that Kevin Smith isn't here because, um, he brought a lot of valuable information to the table, uh, looking at what was happening in other states, for instance, places like California and the Midwest. And, um, Chris also brought a lot of knowledge and experience to the table. Um, being new to Kentucky and to Fayette County, my job was to just whip them into shape and- ... get the information out there because I am not a realtor. But- Well, speaking of information, if you all had a list of, of organizations that help people in this area that you could get to the council, because I think one of the hard- hardest things about Lexington is getting information out and knowing- Okay. ... who's out there to help you 'cause there is a lot of good help out there and support groups and counseling. We would- we would be happy to get that. If you could get us something that, that we could share with, with people- Okay. ... that'd be great. Thank you. Mr. Ford, and then Mr. Stennis' time is expired. Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor and, uh, members of the council. I do want to thank Dr. Jackson for eloquently, uh, presenting the findings of the commission on our behalf. Uh, again, my name is Chris Ford, and I serve as president and CEO of Reach. We are a HUD-approved counseling agency that serve low to moderate income clients. And we are, uh, as the report indicated, as many of our counseling agencies can attest to, are often strapped to provide the level of services that we wish to, to all of the clients that are in need, just because the, the lack of funding, uh, that's adequately needed to meet all of the demanding needs. One interesting aspect of this report is that it indicated that the issue is not just for low to moderate income clients, but it's for clients of middle and upper income, particularly in the African American community. And that's a segment that we definitely aren't funded or have capability to serve. So even if we wanted to, we wouldn't, our agency and agency such as ours wouldn't have the capacity as much as we would want to, to be able to provide those services. That's why we feel some of the funding recommendations that the commission has presented, uh, will go a long way. Thank you. Council Member James. Thanks, Mayor. Dr. Jackson, thank you so much for presentation and thanks for your work group. Um, a couple of questions. A lot of people w- would think, um, and believe, probably some people in this room, that if people are in trouble, it's their own personal fault. Um, so how do we talk about the impact, uh, did you talk about the impact of the entire community, um, because of the predatory lending that's going on? How does that... Why should we be concerned as a government and why should we be concerned as a city? How does it... How does it affect me if I, if I don't feel like that I'm a person that's a victim of predatory lending? Thank you for asking that question because we actually did have some in-depth conversations about that very issue. I think as a government, we need to care about the health of our citizens, all of them. And in order to care about the health of our citizens and know what to do to have them reach maximum health, and when I say health, I mean their total well-being, their financial, social, uh, just being citizens in this, in this area that we govern as, as a government. Um, we need to understand where the disparities are, and when we look at the demographics and see that African Americans are twice as likely to be in poverty than other groups. Uh, we looked at also business ownership and found that African Americans and other, um, non-Caucasian ethnic groups were much more likely than Caucasian groups, uh, not to own their own businesses, not to own their own homes, to be in neighborhoods where there's predatory lending, to be in neighborhoods where reputable ethical lenders are not present. When you look at the social implications of that, you find a stigma that researchers call stereotype threat. So that, for instance, um, if a Hispanic moves into the neighborhood, um, and I'm given an example that I experienced one day while sitting in a restaurant waiting to be called to my table. A Hispanic woman walked through the revolving door and she seemed so self-aware and uncomfortable that she didn't want to look anybody in the eye. She looked as if she wished she could just fade into the woodwork. And she found a corner and backed herself against this sort of column there until the hostess stand was free of customers, and she walked up to the stand and she apparently was looking for work because I heard the manager say something about an application process and he couldn't do anything right then, could she come back the next day. When she walked through that revolving door, the thing that struck me was that as our eyes briefly met, sh- and I smiled at her, she looked as if she didn't deserve to be smiled at. And her eyes quickly cast to the ground and she sort of crawled over to this, this wall. And when the man told her to come back later for an application, she slithered out the door and in obvious discomfort and left. If we care about our citizens, nobody should be allowed to feel like that. Hmm. Hmm. Okay. Um, did your group talk at all about... We talked about predatory lending, like the payday lenders and such. Did you talk about establishing credit unions or mutual banks in low income areas? We did. In fact, we talked about what it takes. There were some bankers on the commission or awesome bankers who were members of the commission, who talked about what it costs and what the concerns are of a bank who might consider establishing itself in a low to moderate income neighborhood where currently there, there may not be any. We understand that banking is a business, and that businesses are in it to make money, and they don't see the prospect of making money in low income neighborhoods. So in part, the success of some of our efforts have to rely on the care that these institutions have for the general health of the county, and somebody is going to have to consider biting the bullet unless we come up with some really creative ways, because we understand business concepts. Banks need to make money. That's why they exist. And so, as I said, we don't have all the answers. We did uncover some of the issues that we need to be concerned about, and perhaps it might be a good idea to, uh, create a standing committee to address some of these, if that's the best that we can do short of creating a housing commission. Okay. Well, I look forward to helping you with that and would be interested in any economic impact data that you have to support moving forward with any of those initiatives. Thank you. Thanks, ma'am. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Uh, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, uh, Dr. Jackson, uh, for, uh, for all your work so far, 'cause I don't think it's over by any stretch. Uh, I think we're just beginning- Is that a threat? No, I think this is, this is a, uh, a- an issue that has a lot of, of, uh, of opportunity and it also has a ton of challenge too. It does have a lot of opportunity. And, and that's how I tend to look at, at, at everything. One of the things that, um, as, as you were going through your recommendation list that I, I kind of seized on, on, on your first recommendation about having that commissioner, and I agree with you that when everybody's in charge, nobody's in charge, and we see that a lot in other areas. Um, was it a dis- a discussion amongst your group to maybe go the route of a mayoral-appointed commission, um, instead of having that commissioner position that was inside of government and, and that structure, uh, but rather maybe taking the, the commission approach? Uh, and partly because of the financial times that you mentioned that we're in, and if you look at 130, $40,000 of salary and this, that, and the other, i- i- while that money's not there, the need is there, so i- is that an opportunity for us? Could we do that route or, or does it have a drawback that I'm not, not- I agree with you that it is an opportunity. Okay. I think that when we get stuck on the details of whether it's a mayoral appointment or whether it's an existing agency or whether it's this or whether it's that, then nobody's in charge. Right. No decision is made, nothing gets done. I think that if we zero in on the need itself and ask ourselves, "How can we meet this need?" and then look at the resources that we have and if it becomes shared by two agencies or some individual, and since I'm not intimately familiar with the structure of all the agencies and commissions, I, I would rely on conversation with you for that. But I would try to circumvent getting mired in useless details and focus on what is it that our citizens need and how can we come closest to meeting that need and not be hamstrung by the details of whether it's a mayoral appointment or some other agency. And, and I think, you know, just sitting here listening to, to the report, I, I think that there, there I would point you towards let's look at is that an opportunity that we can have an entry point, uh, and, and start this with- without any cost incurred and we can start addressing the issue. The other thing, Council Member Stennet mentioned this, and I would, I guess, challenge your group to, to take it up a notch. Um, a lot of times we do have a lot of resources that are so diffused, uh, you know, everybody needs more and, and so forth, but if you kind of look at what everybody has, we might have all the necessary assets sitting in this community already. And a group like yours can do it much better than, than us, but I would challenge you to, to drill down a little bit and, and do a, um, what I would call an intangible inventory. Uh, I do this a lot with companies across A- America when they don't think they have money or, or things to incentivize their employees. If you actually go through and see what they do have access to for free or, or is already there- Mm-hmm. ... all of a sudden you realize you got a lot more stuff than you- Yeah. ... you thought. I, I would ask you that when you put that list together that he had mentioned, drill down a little bit and, and let's look at what we might be able to tap into, um, and if this commission is the structure or, or some other means, I think that gives somebody an immense amount of, um, weaponry or, uh, ar- armament t- to attack this problem, that if, if it's a commissioner or a commission or, uh, you know, two agencies that combine, if they have an inventory of what's already here, uh, I think that we can solve some of these problems and, and get at them very quickly. The last thing that I would tell you is, is we go in this... what's also very important is to look for easy wins because the problem is this big and sometimes when it gets to be that big, it's, it's just, you know, everybody's hard drive is full and it's very difficult to get it. If you could identify, here are some of the easiest wins. This is sitting right here. If, if we just attack this, whether it be by resolution or it be by, uh, something else, because creating funds where there aren't any funds or creating commissions and like you say, getting mired in details, that takes some time, it takes some work, and, and there's all kinds of things that go into that. But if it's a matter of getting this over here to this, let's do it. And, and, you know, I... but, but we, we don't see that and it's something now that you all obviously are, are the go-to people on this, and I think you could be a tremendous resource for this, not just this body, but for this community. So again, I applaud all that you're doing and just would ask you to go ahead and keep drilling down and, and then let's find the easy wins and go ahead and move on those. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Dr. Jackson, for coming in today, and thank you for the task force for its work. Uh, I guess, eh, having served in the mortgage industry for two years and never having done a subprime loan, one of the things that we found most difficult was that once a person goes through the counseling and they get the loan, there's no teeth. You know, one of the programs I worked with had a, a post-loan, post-mortgage one-year counseling aspect to it. The problem is once you get your mortgage, there's nothing that can force you to come back and stay in that counseling. So, as your task force met, did you discuss ways to keep people engaged in that counseling? We certainly discussed the need to do that, yes. And, um, not only the need to do it, but recognizing that there are some, without judging people, reasons that some people don't come back. Sometimes they're very personal. Sometimes they are reasons of being embarrassed about some personal aspect of their finances or their lives or whatever. So we did talk about trying to find ways around helping people overcome those kinds of obstacles that prevent them from getting the kind of counseling that they need so that they can stay on track. So I think that that further thinking would be, and would have to be a part of, the way we look at this entire situation going forward. Um, for recommendations three and four, exploring possibilities of selling Home, uh, G-26 mortgage loans- Mm-hmm. ... if you guys explore doing that, um, one thing I'd like you to look at is how to put some teeth in that, that once you got the loan, 'cause people... It's not difficult to get people to come to the counseling pre-mortgage. It's once they get the mortgage, there's no more strings attached that it's hard to get them to continue to stay in the counseling. So if you're gonna explore that, could you explore ways to make sure that people have to stay in the counseling for at least one year afterwards? For at least, I'm sorry? For at least one year. Okay. Post, post-mortgage. Secondly, um, recommendation four and recommendations five, um, if you could speak a little bit more, I only get two, two minutes and 48 seconds left, so after I'm done- . ... if you could speak a little bit to the, um, recommendation four, the feasibility of creating alternatives to payday lending. And, um, I just wanna make a comment and then I'll just turn the floor over to you. One of the things that I'd hoped that the task force would come back with, and that might be difficult for you to do, because we're a local government, not a state or federal entity, but there aren't any recommendations here about what we might do legislatively to stop the predatory lending. We've... E-everything here seems to be on an educational front for the lender, for the borrower, I mean, I'm sorry. Oh, that's what you get for asking an educator to chair the commission. Well, you did a fantastic job. Um, but did you guys look at any recommendations that we would have, that we could legislatively go after one of these payday lenders? And I know I might get email over that, and I welcome it. 'Kay. Um, and any other predatory lender that's out there. Okay. Ways that we can legislatively stop them from predatori- from- 'Kay. ... their predatory practices. All right. And then I'll turn the floor over to you. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, the short answer is no on the last question. We did not go into great detail about legislative measures that might be taken to stop predatory lending. Um, and I think part of the reason is that at the time that we convened, I was still very new here and getting acquainted with my new government, which I'm still doing. So we didn't. Um, we ended our, our meetings and submitted our report last spring. So, um, I think that e-if we go forward with more work on this, that is definitely one of the things that we would do. Okay. And then could you speak on, on number four, I think it is? Recommendation number four? Um, create, uh, creating alternatives to payday lending. Yeah, I think there, um, we're still dealing with some of the, the social concerns, because if someone without means needs an immediate response to a situation and the payday lender is right there ready to provide that, the person obscures his or her options for an immediate- Right. ... although tragic solution to what they're facing. And I think that's one of the reasons counseling is so important. It's important that the counseling happens early and that the counseling is thorough and that it lasts long enough to be useful. But I think coupled with some legislative action that curtails what the lenders themselves are allowed to do might help that situation as well. So it might have to be a three-part address to that. Okay. I just have six seconds left. If I could ask one follow-up question. I'm, I'm watching the time up there. Okay. Um, when you said that you looked at recommendations for, um, creating alternative paydays lending, were you looking at just counseling or were you looking at other lending opportunities? We were looking at a combination of things. We were trying to think of as many things as we could to try to address this problem, and we didn't think that there was one simple answer. And we knew that if we tried to put forth one simple answer, the onus was gonna be on one entity and no entity wants to shoulder the full responsibility for something like that. So that's why it has to be a combination of things. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor, uh... Dr. Jackson, thank you for, for, for being here and being so helpful to us. I, uh, following this discussion and, and following up on what Council Member Myers said, uh, you know, the, the whole question of how, how to stop predatory lenders, uh- ... uh, the answer, c- is, is I think fairly simple, and that is compete with them. And, and, and, th- the predatory lenders are, are, are in the neighborhoods and the, and the respectable lenders are, are not. And so, o- one, m- one of the things that struck me a few years ago when, when I participated in the, in the Don't Borrow Trouble, uh, Initiative, was that, and I, and you just touched on this, that, that the victims are, are quite aware that they're, that they're being exploited and trapped and doomed to endless paying back of a, of a loan, but they, but they do not have a choice. Uh, and- But they feel they don't. Yes. And, and, but there's no place to go. So the payday shop is, is, is right there on the corner, and, and there's no place else. And I, it does seem to me that, uh, we can talk all we want about, about helping out with down payments on houses, that's important, but what's I think at least as important is making $25 or $50 available for a short-term loan, because if we, when we don't do that, we are, uh, you know, we're just, we're just keeping people, uh, trapped, and, and, and, and down for a long period of time, and if you're having to pay off e- endless interest on a $25 loan, forget about- Exactly. ... paying the down payment on a house. Exactly. And I, I think what we have to realize too is that poverty costs a lot of money. We pay a lot of, u- those of us who aren't poor, we pay so much money for, you know, for keeping poverty alive and well. And, and so I, I really do think we've gotta focus on this, on, on, on this issue, on getting small amounts of money into the community. How much money do banks have to make in order to make a profit, in order to, uh, to make some dent in this endless cycle of, of, of poverty and predation and exploitation? So, uh, uh, I, I know it's a difficult task, but, uh, small steps I think are gonna be essential in, in, in overcoming it. I think that's exactly right. What we realize is that this is a process, it's not an event. It's not something that we can correct, um, as a government, as a county, overnight. Um, it will take time, and it, it requires a culture change, and culture change always takes time. But I think that if we really care about the health of our citizens, we need to commit to take the time to do what we need to do. Yes, and to put some money in the pot. And to put some money in the pot. Go ahead. Mayor, if I, if I could, I do wanna, uh, just leave the, uh, the council with, with this consideration. The study that Human Rights Commission brought forth that Dr. Jackson has chaired, and again, we do thank her. She didn't even have time to pack her bags upon arrival to Lexington before- ... agreeing to, to help us. And, and the rest of the commission can attest to that, but this, this focuses on a problem in the African-American community about mortgage lending, predatory lending, and other financial literacy all have impacts to it, but again, the report not only mentioned low to moderate income buyers, for which my agency and a lot of the other folks here serve, but middle to upper income African-Americans. And that is a segment that we have not served due to a lack of funding. Uh, I wish it were, uh, some, uh, some easy wins, but the reality is that Lexington ranks 40th nationally in this problem in regards to mortgage lending for African-Americans. That's a title that we're gonna hopefully, uh, not claim, uh, hopefully any, any further. The benefit of addressing this problem, even though it will require some funding, which we realize is tough right now for local government, is that if the African-American community were being able to access the loans for which they qualified for, those would be additional funds that could go to other aspects, not only in the African-American community, but in Lexington as a whole, as far as education, as far as business development, as far as cultural and arts. So the short term cost of the government providing leadership on this effort will greatly be impacted and outweighed by the cost benef- by the benefit it can provide and the relief it can provide for African-Americans in mortgage lending. So thank you, Dr. Jackson. Thank you. Uh, I should've mentioned to the other, t- to the members of the council, uh, the commission has a report that I guess is 10 or 15 pages long, something like that. Eight. Eight pages. Eight pages long. Uh, if you are interested in getting a copy of the detailed report that has a little more explanation for the recommendations, I'd be glad to make that available to you. Council member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor, and, uh, thank you, Dr. Jackson for your outstanding presentation. Um, I was just curious, as you were going through some of the recommendations, are there services provided at the federal or state level that would be similar to recommendations that you all have made to us locally? Um, we actually didn't talk much about federal. Mm-hmm. Um, we looked at Fayette County and what we thought was within the power of, um, the Lexington-Fayette County urban government. Okay, I was -- uh, the reason it came to my mind was, I think, nationally, we all know with- Yeah. ... Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ... we know s- what happened. And I was just curious as to whether or not you looked at that and whether or not, from a federal level, some of the things you're asking us to institute, particularly things that have a dollar price tag to them- Yeah. ... if we'd be simply duplicating services that are already, um, provided. In s- in s- that's, um, that's a good question, not an easy one for me to answer right now without doing a little more research, because, um, s- since the commission finished its work and submitted its report, a lot of government stimulus activity has taken place, and we have not pursued the relationship or the possibility between some of that activity and some of the recommendations that we made. Were we to continue this work further, that would certainly be one of the several things that we feel we would need to do, because, um, as I said, we're all under financial siege and we have to look to every resource that we can to try to ameliorate the si- the situation that our citizens are in. Well, and as Council Member McCord said, and, and what you're saying, that you all just, um, had not done, um, the comparisons yet and, and looked at it, but that made -- definitely think -- I think would be the next step of that committee, as far as, you know, obviously, we wouldn't wanna be duplicating anything- Definitely. ... that's already out there- Right. ... especially with price tags attached to them. So thank you, that's all I have. My pleasure. Council Member James. Thanks, Mayor. Um, Dr. Jackson, was affordability, um, talked about in comparison to predatory lending, as far as mortgages were concerned? Did you see a trend with lack of affordability of housing? I don't know if you watch channel three, but we talk a lot about affordable housing, we have an affordable housing trust fund, um, that hasn't been funded yet, um, that we've been trying to get something going for probably two and a half years or so, and I'm wondering, do you see a connection there? Does your group see a connection? Um, I think that these, these issues are all interconnected, and when we talk -- when we think about affordability, um, we, and, and think about the counseling, there are people who do go for more than they can afford, and sometimes it's not necessarily a predatory lending tactic. Uh, it's sometimes a personal, social issue, uh, that counseling may be able to help. Um, some -- not everybody is practical, and we don't pretend that we have all the answers that will make this a perfect situation. Okay. We do recognize that there are some things that people deal with that we may not be able to have much of an impact on at all. Okay. But we do think we need to do the best that we can to reach all those that we can reach, to try to help to curtail some of the things- Okay. ... that are going on. We did find, um, through the Human Rights Commission study that, uh, particularly in the African American community, um, African Americans with similar incomes to whites are saddled with higher interest mortgage rates. Why? That's- Why is that? Is that a rhetorical question? Yes, it is. Okay, then, we have the answer. No answer necessary. Okay, well, I, I like the work that the group did, 'cause I think it's a good start in conjunction with a lot of other things we're doing. And just to respond to Council Member Meyers about the legislation, there are, there are some, there's some legislation in the state that is dealing with ... maybe it's, maybe it's in Washington, that's dealing with limiting the number of payday lenders in certain areas. So, I know Harmony Little, that used to be with LexLink, was working on that, and I'll be sh- I'll be happy to connect you with her, and that's something we can do. But I think, um, one of the recommendations was to reenact the Don't Borrow Trouble group. Mm-hmm. And I think if council would agree that that is something that we could do, I mean, it, it was, it's a quite, it's a small amount, but that is some- that is a group that can continue the work of this group. Um, and I just did some configurations over here, and it looks like if we all contributed $250 from our NDF funds, we might be able to support that. So, um, I make a motion that we, um, reinstitute the Don't Borrow Trouble, uh, group with contributions from the council NDF funds. And may I ask a question too? Mm-hmm. Um, considering the, the reality that some ethnic groups are saddled with higher interest rates than whites with similar income, is there a legislative move that you could make that would prevent lenders from unfairly raising the interest rates on loans by certain people, compared to loans from others? I think we could look at that. That is something the Don't Borrow Trouble group- Yeah. ... could make as part of their task, so- We- ... that's my motion. ... we have a motion on the floor. I haven't heard a second yet, but as I understand the motion, it is to support the recommendation for reinstituting the Don't Borrow Trouble group and that each council member contribute $250 from the NDF funds to support it. That's my motion. I have a second from Vice Mayor Gray. Is there any discussion? Council Member Gorton. Council Member James, I just have a question. Is that -- I don't remember, was that housed within government? Where was that housed? Was that housed with nuTua? Community Development. Okay, so it would be a budget amendment? We could do a- So- ... budget amendment from R&DF to Community Development. So, I first understood your motion to say, "With contributions from cost center, from NDF," but the mayor added the amount. Does your motion include the amount? So this would, would mandate each council member to give that much? Uh, yeah, it'd be ... What was the total, Dr. Jackson? Do you remember what that total was? Four. ... the, um, Dump Out Trouble- Resurrecting that project? Mm-hmm. Um, yes, I can tell you in a second. 35 hundred, I think. 250, um, times 15 is 3750. So that would- $3,500. Okay. So we could just- ... whatever that- ... whatever that total is, um, divide it by 15 if we wanna do it that way. Yeah. I did 250 and it got to 3750, which would add in some administrative costs for printing or anything like that that would go along for the group. S- but I just am trying to understand. So the motion mandates the amount each council member would give. If one council member wanted to give more and one give less, that wouldn't be- No, this- ... permitted. ... the motion would specify that it would be equally split and, and the, the reasoning behind that is that this is an issue that affects all of our, that affects the entire city, so equal contributions from every council. Pr- uh, Council Member Blues. Uh, I like the spirit of this, uh, uh, of this motion, but, uh, but I would be very hesitant to, uh, uh, to compel, uh, council members to, to contribute, uh, a specified amount. Especially since we have two council members who cannot be here this afternoon because of, because of illness. Uh, it, it troubles me that we w- we would be saying, "You must pay $250 minimum." So I would be happy to support this motion if there were no fixed figure attached to it. Um, all right. Again, the debate now, I'm not looking at the list on the screen, is on the motion to utilize NDF funds. Council Member Gordon. Well, it just occurred to me, um, Mayor, I don't know if your office would have $1000 to help get this started, but maybe we could share it with your office and that would make it easier for those council members who wanna give a different amount to do it. I, I don't know what your budget is like, but- Uh, uh, we don't either right now. We're in the process- Oh. We're in the process of trying to substantially reduce our budget and a number of other budgets around Urban County Government so i- in the middle of that conversation, I'm not sure I can provide you with a real clear answer, um, 'cause I suspect we've already taken out anything that's not already spoken for. Well, and that's a good point because I think we're getting ready to talk about decreasing our budget. So very good point. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Um, may I be so bold- Yes. ... as to make a comment here? Please. Um, Council, Councilman, is it McCloud? McCord. McCord and Blues mentioned a few minutes ago that, um, all of us have to accept some responsibility and, and Councilman James as well, that we are the guardians of the health of this county and, and its citizens and you don't get something for nothing. And this work has to be done and no one on the commission has asked for any compensation for it. We've all met and met religiously and with commitment, giving of our time, taking ourselves away from the institutions that do pay us to do our jobs. But the institutions for whom we work also care about the health of this area and its citizens. I can tell you unequivocally that UK cares about the health of this community and sees itself as one of the guardians and partly responsible for it. We're talking about a nominal sum of $3,500 and if we're going to quibble now over whether somebody pays 250 or more or less, then we have a bigger problem than we're discussing. Further discussion on the motion. Council Member Stennet. I would just say we do have a bigger problem than what we're discussing now because we're being asked to cut our budget 8%. That's never been done here in this government since 1974 was merged government. It's a very serious issue and Tuesday, we will take it up in this council cutting our own budgets, our own NDS in half, and it's a very critical issue. Um, I- Yes. ... I think the spirit of the motion is excellent. I think we have to do it sometime. Right. But the question is timing. Yeah. And, you know, we may be forced to lay off employees, including public safety employees. So it's a very serious issue and I agree with you. It, we do- Yeah. We recognize the seriousness of it. And I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that we're trying to share in the responsibility of it. And we're not asking you to pay for everything. We're also giving of our time to help provide expertise, input, work, sweat. We're rolling up our sleeves as well to try to help make this a better place for our citizens to live. And believe me, I appreciate that. We have other groups though that are also willing to do that, that also are asking for funds at this time. And as the mayor said, we're in the midst of a very serious budget reduction. Right. $15 million is nothing to sneeze at to make up in our budget this year. So I'll, I'll vote against it, um, un- until we figure out what our economy is. Thank you. Further discussion. Council Member Crosby. Um, yes, Mayor, thank you. I agree, uh, a lot with what Council Member Stennet said, as far as, uh, where we, where we stand in our budget situation. I guess my question to you is, um, would UK be willing to commit any funding towards this? Would they throw in a few thousand dollars to assist? I understand y'all have, you're providing your expertise, but i- uh, would UK, um, you mentioned that they are willing to make an investment in this. Are they financially willing to help us out and maybe share the cost? I am, as a member of the President's Cabinet, I will be happy to put that on the agenda for the next meeting. Okay. And I -- I would be -- I will also probably vote no. And maybe if we could get an answer from President Todd as to whether or not there might be some sort of commitment from you all, um, I think that would be something good to come back to us. But thank you. I just have one request. If going forward, when we talk about this issue, if we could just say we, so that we don't set up a psychological division that expresses itself between you and us. I don't under- I guess I don't understand what you're asking. Uh, if you pay- I- ... if you all... Right. Because we're, I mean, we're all part of the community, but I'm specifically asking for the University of Kentucky to make a commitment. Right. You asked LFECG, that's not we, that is us individually giving $250 out of our co- out of our, um, Neighborhood Development Funds. Right. So there was no we in the money request. So my point is, can we, can we, um- Uh, um- Can we ask President Todd for- Definitely. And I think- ... we- We do have a moment of confusion here, but we won't exacerbate it. I will put this on the agenda for the next meeting. Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I would gladly give $250 out of my cost center if I have a cost center a-f- after the next couple of weeks, but, um, I, the reason, first of all, I'd like to know more about the, um, Don't Borrow Trouble program. I am very aware of the payday lender situation, and, um, l- uh, health crisis is the number one reason people are foreclosed on. So saying all that, I think it sets a precedent. I don't know if we've ever had a motion that mandated how people did their cost centers. And, yeah, and so I, I, my concern is setting a precedent that we legislate how those cost centers... I mean, we have, at this point, $10,000 for an entire year for all the neighborhood problems. And so that's my concern. That's why I wouldn't support the motion, but, uh, cer- but I certainly would, c- you know, if there's any money left in our cost centers, be glad to, to do that. Thank you. Well, I think you've all come up with some good ideas, and I will take them to President's, um, cabinet meeting at the next meeting, and I'd like to, if I contributed to any confusion or ill will or tension that you might feel, I apologize for that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Chair recognizes Council Member Meyers to discuss Council Member James's motion. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I, I'm not gonna support this for a couple reasons. One, if you notice, council members are doing pass arounds, and I've been zeroing those out because I've got a couple of projects in my district that I'm trying to save the money for, and I hope we don't lose it in the process of the budget scale back. But the other reason is that, as another council member said, um, to make... This fund was set up for us to deal with things in our districts, and for, uh, a motion to be made to mandate that we take part of these funds to use it for something, uh, would be a bad precedent for us. There's general fund dollars. I know we need those dollars, but there is a better way to go get that money, the $3600, other than trying to get it out of NDF as a mandate. So that's why I'm not gonna support it. Thank you. And for- Well, I think out of principle, you should know more details about what this program might involve anyway before you vote. Right. So if you let, give me time to take this idea to the President's Council, um, and get some input from folks who feel ownership for the community as well and define whether there is a level of support of whatever kind, we can lend to it and then bring that back to you, and then you make a decision. I, I, I would like to respond to that. Um, I actually worked in the mortgage industry for two years. I do know exactly what this programs about, and I'm still making the decision I'm making. I don't need any more education about it. Okay. Thank you. A- any further discussion on the motion? Have a motion on the floor, so let's go ahead and, and deal with that. Those in favor, please indicate the voting aye electronically. Those opposed, vote nay electronically. And the motion fails by a vote of three to ten. All right, I think we're now back to our original, uh, discussion. And Council Member Henson, did you have questions for Dr. Jackson? I, I guess I just wanted to make some comments about poverty in general because I, um, many times, I feel like th- the numbers show that it's prevalent in the African American community, but I know that poverty knows n- no color. That's right. And when it comes to the payday lending and the folks that I work with on a daily basis, I know that if their only means of transportation is to get to work in a, a vehicle and their vehicle's broke, broken down, you know, when you weigh it out, they don't have anyone to lend them any money. That's their option. But I agree with Council Member Blues as far as giving them some competition, lower the rates, and, you know, st- it would still be helping people out. I, I help... Don't tell my husband. He might be watching, but I help... I lo- I loan folks money just to help them out until they get paid or whatever, but, um- Busted. But I, I know, I know poverty. And ... And in ... They're fitting a need, or they wouldn't be there, and -- but they do need some competition. So, thank you. I appreciate your work. Thank you. Council Member Meyers. I'm done. Thank you. All right. Council Member Lawless. Ah, ah, ah, I didn't have anything to add. I'm sorry. All right. Does anyone else wish to, uh, uh, speak to the report? Thank you very much, Dr. Jane Kelly. It's been a pleasure. We look forward to hearing back from you. The next presentation is an update on the Red Mile, uh, project. And I'll welcome John Ferris and, um, Stan Harvey to the podium. Jeff? Mr. Mayor, council members, my name is Jeff Yost. I'm a lawyer with Jackson Kelley, and, uh, we are here today on behalf of the Lexington Trot Breeders Associations to, uh, ask that the council, uh, participate in the development of the Red Mile project. Uh, Lexington Trot Breeders Association has put together a, a quartet of people to, uh, assist in this project. And, uh, our law firm is one member. Uh, Urban Collage is one member of the planners. Uh, John Ferris and his Commonwealth Economics is the financial consultant. And Jihad Hallini, uh, is the engineering consultant from Vision Engineering. Um, in your packet of materials today, uh, you found a request letter from us on behalf of the project, and you also found a, an economic and a physical analysis that's been done by John Ferris. Uh, today, we just want to tell you that we are making this request. We will be back in January, uh, with a development plan and to really formally proceed, but we did want to take just a few minutes to show you, uh, what is involved in the, uh, project. And Stan Harvey's going to, to do that part of the program. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'll try to be brief 'cause I know there's a, a lot else on your agenda. I believe there might be a, a brief presentation that perhaps will come up, but, um, what we thought it was a timely opportunity to brief the council. Some of you all have been involved in our efforts, um, or perhaps have heard or read about some of them, but we thought it might be helpful to at least give a general overview of what was being proposed at the Red Mile, and a little brief summary of some of the process that led us up to this point, where we're asking for the city's partnership. Um, we became involved, and were retained by the owners of the Red Mile, to look at development opportunities on what was considered under-utilized property at, at the tr- at the track. Um, is there any ... Well, then perhaps I can, uh, try to vis- to verbally describe, uh, some of that unless, uh, I may have an extra copy. Um, this might be briefer than I thought. Um, but basically there's, there's also copies of the plan, I believe, in some of your package of materials. Um, basically, page seven. Thank you, John. Uh, so actually you can probably refer to those and, and that'll keep me briefer, which will probably be good for everybody's sake. Uh, the, the Red Mile is 132 acres, as most of you all know, located between Versailles and South Broadway. Um, the development plan that we've been working in concert with a representative steering committee and the general public over the last several months, concerns approximately 68 of those 132 acres. The first question that we have come out with from everybody involved has been, "Does this mean the track is going away?" It's actually an attempt by the owners to try to develop some sustainable economic development that both would be a synergy with the track, entertainment, restaurants, other types of things that you can imagine being part of a destination like a racetrack, but also a mixed-use environment that could include office and housing and, and other services. Um, it involves the 68 acres that if you go on Red Mile Road today, basically what you see in front of the grandstand. Um, that property is today used for parking and overflow parking and for, uh, s- there's a significant number of stables there as you move towards Versailles Road. Um, the plans that you have there show the mix. Um, it is centered around two major kinda organizing features. One is a central town green, for lack of a better term, which is modeled in ways. Uh, we, we did some case studies, uh, looking at other developments around the country that had organized around mixed-use environments. Um, some of those notably include NASCAR tracks, Gulfstream Park in Miami has done a very similar type of associated development. So, all of this was, uh, was designed to kinda create a pedestrian-oriented destination that would include a mix of uses, including residential, retail on the ground floor, centered around public open space. And that furthermore, there would be pedestrian and bicycle connections both in the development and to its surroundings. What's happening in Southwest ... ... um, Lexington is very interesting. There's so many efforts going on. I'm sure you'll hear a lot about the Distillery District in Manchester and Town Branch Trail, but also on South Lime. And then Red Mile and Virginia basically are the connecting roads that kinda connect UK to all of that activity. So there's a real synergy, and part of the plan is to also look at connective, uh, pedestrian and bicycle facilities that might be accommodated. As a brief overview, we had a ... We've had a tremendous partnership with the Division of Planning, which I wanna thank publicly, um, for supporting us. Uh, one of the challenges and why we're here partially is that very soon, I hope in the next few weeks, you all will be considering approval of a rezoning of a portion of the, the, the said 68 acres that I'm mentioning from its current agricultural use to the new, uh, mixed use three, which actually we developed in concert with the Division of Planning that allows a higher intensity mixed use development. So there'll be two issues. Um, Jeff has just mentioned the consideration of the actual TIFF development plan, but in the, in the upcoming weeks, I think you will also be considering a r- ... The Planning Commission's recommendation which was unanimous approval on November 19th to consider rezoning that 68 acres to, from agricultural to mixed use. Um, so all of this has been done with, uh, kind of, uh, innovative partnership with the city and the Division of Planning. Um, this area had been called out for in the comp plan to be a mixed use district, but that done in, through a small area planning process. As you all know, the city hasn't had the resources to do a small area plan in the Red Mile area, so basically the Red Mile development plan that's been developed and you have some pieces here, um, id- identified pieces of, um, of, of what is kind of an abbreviated small area plan that was done with public process in the la- ... In over four months ending this summer and with adoption officially by the Planning Commission this summer. Um, so I'd be glad to answer any specific questions. In the interest of time, I won't, uh, to go into too, too much more detail other than to, um, to, uh, ask if you all have any questions, I can help, uh, clear up in terms of what is physically being proposed to be developed there. Are there any questions for Mr. Harvey? I think Council Member, uh, Gordon. Thank you. Uh, thank you very much, Stan and Mr. Yost. Thank you very much. Um, I just, um, I'm sure in the future we'll have more questions, but I just have one kind of a detailed question, because I saw a concern expressed in the newspaper when this first was, uh, presented. And so it has to do with the stables, and I know that you said that the intent is to keep the racetrack there, and then there were some folks who are, um, involved with the racing who had a concern that too many stables are being removed. And so I wondered if, um, you could speak to that and ... Just briefly and to say what the current stable capacity is and what the future one would be under this. Okay, sure. Um, and, uh, it probably is a good prompt to mention some of the other major conversations we've had, um, with the public. In terms of the racetrack operations, I'm not a horseman, uh, but I will attempt to ... We, we ... That has come up and we had specific conversations with the public about that. There's about 250, uh, stables presently in the TIFF development area. Um, the Red Mile owners that 132 acres also includes the Tattersall Sales Pavilion, which is actually a finger that comes out to South Broadway. There are 400 stables in Tattersalls, which has been used periodically, actually less often over time. And so the owner's, um, position is that they can stable ho- horses out of Tattersalls, which is still a remaining and is not part of the subject of the development plan. In addition to, um, as I understand it, not a horseman again, that, um, there's increasing number of kind of satellite stabling where people come in for a brief period of time, maybe in Fayette County briefly. Um, I, I understand Keeneland and others kind of do that. They don't house all temporary stabling anymore on site necessarily. So the owners believe that this is a, a feasible, and I believe, um, in, in our conversations with ... We had several people both, um, associated with, with the track and with the horse industry in general ask the question that you're asking. Um, it has been a concern. The other concerns have been about the so-called Floral Hall or Stable of Memories, the red barn, which is kind of the iconic feature there. Um, that is technically a nonprofit separate parcel. It's not subject of the development plan. In fact, we're just trying to provide and keep open space around that and as- and have new parking as part of the development plan, um, associated around, around the barn. We also, I think, and Council Member Henson can attest, we spent the majority of the time talking about drainage and storm water- Thank you. ... um, which is a very good reason why I think- Thank you. ... we're here to talk about a TIFF, uh, the p- possibility of a TIFF district. There's significant aging infrastructure and on the site, given that it's mostly been a parking lot in stables, there's no significant infrastructure in place for, for that 68 acres and there's significant flooding and other drainage problems that have, that have been exacerbated recently. And I, I hope that most of the public would say there's been a lot of positive steps that the process has actually brought forward a lot of joint partnerships with the owners of the Red Mile to look at, at some of those immediate flooding issues. My other little question is, if you're at liberty to say, um, I noticed that, um, part of your ... Part of the development is entertainment. Do you know what sort of entertainment- ... at this point, or is that not possible to say right now? Um, uh, the, the idea of the entertainment and mixed use is that there'd be additional, both expansion of the grandstand, if there was more attendance and, and, and, and others, so part of that is increased actual track operations and, and facilities and renovations. There also is the idea that a specific entertainment restaurant, steakhouse, et cetera, that type of thing, could be part of that building that experience of a, of, of going to a track. I will go ahead and acknowledge because it's been a common question of, of many, the owners of the Red Mile have not been, uh, silent about their hope for expanded gaming. That's not what this is about. Um, they are proponents of that. In fact, this development plan, uh, you know, I would characterize has come about because of their, of, of their belief that the real estate is really one of the ways to make the track, uh, economically sustainable, with or without expanding gaming, which is, um, obviously something they're off- also still advocates of, but it's, this plan is really kinda dependent on creating a place around the existing grandstand that would help generate additional income and sustainability and then create more of a destination both for the city and for their operations. I, I appreciate that. My entertainment question really, um, was only sparked because another TIFF is moving forward s- close by, Angliana, which has an entertainment component, and I just was wondering if it was a similar component. So thank you very much. Councilmember Meyers? All right. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Stan, I, um, I, my question is kind of a followup to Councilmember Gorton's and that is, um, th- this is a very enticing-looking mixed use project and I wonder if, uh, the extent to which it's been, it's been, uh, uh, developed in, you know, in context with reference to possible, you know, competition. You've got the Krikorian, uh, TIFF, uh, in the works. We have the Distillery District and, and, and so on. Uh, and, is this, uh, is this something that, that, that the, uh, uh, that the city can, uh, sustain? Uh, well, uh, um, in answer to that, I'm not a market analyst either, but, uh, I think that the owners believe that both, uh, Distillery District and the Show Prop and Angliana Development are actually a synergy. I mean, the whole point of what they're proposing in front of the grandstand is a synergy of, of a place where there's multiple opportunities and not just one destination that both tourists and Lexington residents are going to, so I think they see that whole area as being this entertainment hub. Um, since I'm involved in the Distillery District as well, I guess I would say that Distillery District, to me, has a niche of this industrial reuse, another part of our heritage, which is bourbon and, and others, and it's more of an industrial adaptive reuse, where the Red Mile development plan is more of a from scratch, kinda more, uh, contemporary. You know, some of the case studies we've shown at, um, with, um, some of the developments that have happened, they're really kinda from, from scratch. So it's complementing another signature industry, but I would hope, um, would complement each other in terms of creating more of a activity around downtown Lexington, both for residents and others. Uh, to your question, though, it's, it, it's obvious that, that the project would be phased over time. It would not be all built at one time. And so it, you know, it, as, as, hopefully the Lexington market, um, continues to mature, um, mixed use has not been ... I don't believe that there's a tremendous amount of examples of true mixed use in Lexington, so I think that's the other opportunity that, that all the projects in that part of the city have, is to start tapping in, hopefully to an untapped market, um, and, and create a synergy of destination. Thank you. I, uh, you know, I, I, I, I think you're right that we probably don't have to worry about saturation, but, but, uh, I just, I, I assume that you've looked at it in, you know, in, in, uh, in that 30,000-foot context as, as well. Yes. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanna take this opportunity, Stan, to thank you and the members of the working group 'cause I felt like this was a process that really worked, where we could get out there and address issues that would be affected by, you know, in the district and address those. And, um, I really appreciate the work- . ... you all have done, so. And I do think that there are, are continued needs in the 11th District that hopefully this development will continue to address, but thank you and Jahid and, and then all the other members of the working group. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lawless. Yes, thank you. Um, this looks very exciting. Um, one of the questions I have, and I haven't had time to read all this, it's kinda been a wild day here, um, is what is the cost of the residential units and will there be any, um, affordable housing or moderately income housing available? We haven't done, I think it goes to Council Member Blues' question as well, there hasn't been a detailed market, um, analysis that would zoom into that. That has been a concern or, or question that was also raised by, by the Mayor's office about, you know, if, with the city participation, I know that's been an ongoing conversation. Um, the conversation about housing with the public and with the working group has specifically been about student housing to date, um, and the number of student housing units and, um, the full development plan, which if anybody's interested it's on, uh, I imagine can be gotten from the Division of Planning. Um, there sets out a series of kind of guiding principles about the development. And one of those specific kind of ideas was that new housing wouldn't specifically be targeted to undergraduate students 'cause there was a concern over actually that they're ... I don't know if you consider that, it's not necessari- it's a different issue I know than affordable housing, but it is in a way a-about affordable housing that's already there, um, in a different clientele. Um, all that's a long way to say we haven't done a detailed study, but if there are specific concerns or further information that we can provide council about that, those opportunities, um, we haven't gotten into that level of detail to date. Thank you. Anything further? Let me, let me ask, uh, a few questions, if I may. What is the estimated cost of the public infrastructure that you're envisioning with this project? That may be something that Mr. Farris can speak to. I do- I don't know. I believe it's $54 million. All right. And is the expectation that we would issue bonds in the amount of roughly $54 million to be paid by the incremental tax revenue to, uh, fund the, if the, uh, construction of the infrastructure? Mayor, I can take a shot at that. Yeah, if you could go to the podium, please. We know that's obviously a very, uh, serious topic for the city right now, and, uh, it, bonding would be very beneficial probably, but, uh, we, we are not, uh, ready to talk about that yet because we don't think you're ready to talk about that yet. And as we go through the development plan and talk about the different components, um, we, we will want to talk about that, but it- Yeah, if, if it is a matter where you contemplate our going to the market and selling bonds and incurring the debt obligations, it would be really important for us to have as much financial information available to us as possible in order to assess the degree to which we can rely on that incremental tax revenue stream to pay off the bonds- Yes. ... over time. Um, that's a critical part of the analysis about whether or not we can front load the infrastructure costs that you're talking about. When you, when you look at the report, you, you, that John Farris has prepared, you will see that the incremental taxes over the 20-year, uh, life of the TIF program are, I think almost 100 and, $190 million. And that's a very substantial number, but how critical- They're not close, you know. If it happens- Yes. ... becomes the question- Right. ... that we have to resolve. And so for us to be able to engage in that kind of an analysis, we'd need a lot of details about who's in, what their commitment levels are, and all those types of information because in effect, we're extending the credit of urban county government to, to, uh, support the prospects of this infrastructure development coming along later on. And, and so, uh, lest we get caught in a situation where we're paying for infrastructure with no incremental tax revenue to support it, we'd need to have some comfort level with the financial arrangements when the time comes. We understand and we will certainly provide that. All right. I might add just, I'll let the, the financial folks, um, obviously we'll continue to have that dialogue with you all and the Mayor's office, but I will add, um, and you will see this when we have a more detailed discussion about the TIF development plan, as part of the development plan process, there were several public improvements, um, in addition to storm water and others that, you know, we are looking at the possibility of partnering with the city, including traffic modifications up for sales and Broadway, which are significant issues. Um, and then also the kind of, that connection of the, of the bike and ped- pedestrian connection or g- or greenway or whatever it becomes on Red Mile. Um, those are, in our mind, kind of true partnership projects with, with the city where there's some public projects that I understand South Broadway's 31 on the capital improvements list right now. So maybe this is an opportunity, opportunity to, uh, to, to bring those up a little bit. The only point I'm making is when we get to that juncture, uh, where you're asking us to issue bonds, we'll need a lot of financial information in order to make some kind of judgment about whether or not that's a, a prudent thing for us to pursue. Anything else? Thank you. Um, let's see. Council Member Blues, I understood you had a, had a, another motion on approving, on modifying the, uh, docket. Yeah. To amend one of the items. ... is on, uh, on the docket for Tue-- Thursday night. Is my information wrong about that or... I was, uh, I did not bring that down with me. I was going to, uh, actually do that on Thursday. That's fine. That's fine. We'll take care of that then. No problem. Thank you. We're ready for council reports so- Mayor. Council Member Joyce. I needed you to come back to me for intergov. Okay. Thank you. If you have that, well, now would be a good time to do that. Wonderful. Thank you. I'm just gonna look for my packet here. Um, this is the report out for the Intergovernmental Committee for November the 17th, um, of 2009. And there might be a little bit of confusion. We did have a special intergov today. Um, that information is not being reported out today, only the information from, from the November 17th. What you're, what you're receiving passed around is the full resolution. What we did at the Intergovernmental Committee meeting on November 17th is we took that resolution and we voted on each change individually. So what you have in front of you is the full resolution with the changes that were made, that were adopted by that intergov committee on November 17th. So everything you're seeing in front of you is the existing with the changes underlined and in bold. The one exception to that, just for your reference, is on the, one, two, um, one, two, three, I guess it's the third page, not third front and back, but the third front page. And under section 2.204, the words any council member should be bold and underlined and I've underlined that in pen but it's not bold. So, what I thought at this time, I'd be happy to go through the summary of the intergov, but really what needs to be passed by council to move forward to the docket is the entire resolution because it's the components of all of the changes that were made. So I, I don't know what council would like for me to do. I'd be happy just to go through the minutes that were in the packet and talk about, talk about the summary, but basically the resolution that you have in front of you is the passage. No, this is not today's meeting. This was from November 17th. Um, I'll just go through them. I'll just go through the minutes that are in the packet unless there's, um, a suggestion to do it elsew- otherwise. Um, so I won't make individual motions. I'll just make the one motion that is the passage of the resolution or the movement of the resolution to the docket. Um, council talked about, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the committee restructuring plan and what we did, as I mentioned, is go through each, um, section of the resolution item by item where there was changes made. Um, in section 2.101, we adopted that sec- section changing all appointments for standing committees made for a two ter- for a term of two years to coincide with the terms of district council members and I believe the, the change from that was the four years. So originally it had been four years, um, and at this point we made it coincide with every two years. So that was that, that was that change. Um, standing committees, um, what we did there is we, uh, we changed the com- the number of committees. So we currently have four standing committees. We have planning, um, intergov, budget and finance, and services. Um, we had discussion regarding, um, the proposed changes and the proposed changes take us to planning, social services, general gov, public safety, public works, and environmental quality. Um, with those standing committees, the changes you would go from the existing, um, 10 council members to a number of five council members per standing committee. Um, let's see, we had some discussion regarding quorum, um, and we also had a discussion, a, a motion that added economic development as a standing committee. I'm seeing some... Okay, I just want to make sure everything's okay. Um, so we added economic development as one of the standing committees as well. So the, what we adopted was standing committees that had planning, budget and finance, social services, general government, public safety, public works, environmental quality, and economic development. And all of those would have five council members sitting on each of the standing committees. Um, we talked about, okay, um, we talked about that, um, we talked about the, the number of people that needed to be on the economic development committee. We, you know, currently we have all, all of our council members are members of economic development, so we talked about whether we wanted to keep it that way, if it was important to keep it that way. We talked about maybe budget and finance actually did the same work as economic development and maybe there was no need to have that as a separate committee, um, and the motion stood as, um, previously adopted to keep it as a separate standing committee, um, with, um, five council members serving on that. The only exception was, is the budget and finance committee, which will have, um, 10 council members and those would be made up of the chairs of each of the standing committees, um, with the addition of the at large. Let's see. We needed to give definition to the Economic Development Committee and, um, the language that we used there was that, um, the Economic Con- Development Committee shall, um, hear related matters referred, um, to the economic development, um, and all other matters related to economic development, including, um -- that's, that wording's wrong on here. It should say, "Referred, um from the Office of Economic Development and all matters related to economic development, including partner agencies focused on economic development." So that was one of the new, that was one of the changes is that we included, um, the partner agencies, um, some of them are the chamber, um, DDA, um, and there are some entities that ref- that deal with economic development that report to our Economic Development Director that we felt like could, um, be heard in the Economic Development Committee. Um, let's see. We adopted the language of section 2.202. And in your draft, you'll see that it talks about, um, that the, we change it from, "The standing committees will meet at least one regular meeting every month," and we changed that to, "The regular meetings of all standing committees shall be held on the dates and times and locations specified in a schedule of meetings adopted annually by the council." Um, another change that we adopted was the language changing, um, changing the name of work session to Committee of the Whole. In section 2.204, we removed the word, um, "mayor" in that language. And we adopted section 4.104, um, the, the entire section 4.104, um, which deals with the issue of, uh, rules and procedures, Committee of the Whole, approval of summary, basically the agenda that deals with, um, the Committee of the Whole meetings. So I bring forward to you, based on the summary that's presented to you, the resolution that you have, which is nothing but the same, it's the same, um, resolution that is on the docket right now with the adopted changes from the InterGov from November the 17th. So I bring that forward to you for consideration, um, for movement to the docket. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions for Council Member James? I, I don't ... Is there a motion on ... I didn't hear a motion, I'm sorry. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. That was a motion. And what is the motion? The motion is to, um, move to the docket the resolution related to rules and procedures of Irving County Council. Is there a second? I'll second. Council Member Lawless has seconded the motion that this resolution that's been circulated be added to the docket for, uh, Thursday evening. Any discussion on that motion? Council Members Lane. Uh, let me, let me try to get a little clarification first. Are those of you who have clicked, have, uh, keyed in here indicating a desire to speak on this issue ... All right, very well. Council Member Lane. Uh, thank you Mayor. Now I have, uh, been in favor of reorganizing the council to make it more effective and more efficient and save money for operations and also for our taxpayers, but I, I'm a little concerned that we're rushing forward on this a little bit too fast. I mean, I, I just received a draft of this a couple of days ago and I came to the meeting this morning to address some of the issues here and we didn't even get around to discussing the issues at hand. Uh, I do not agree with some of the things in here. For example, uh, eliminating the mayor as being able to refer things into committee. Most of the things that we receive at council are, originated out of the mayor's office through the commissioners, through the blue sheet process, and if I'm interpreting this right, that would not be the process anymore. Uh, secondly, uh, I feel like the mayor should run the, the work session, uh, that we have and the way this is drafted, we would be converting the work session into a Committee of the Whole and there might be some interpretation about whether the mayor would chair that meeting, but I feel the mayor needs to continue to chair the work session and the, and the, and the council meetings. Also, I've taken a great deal of time to prepare, uh, some recommendations on how the committee should be structured, the work sessions, and the council meetings and we didn't have any time to review that at, at the meeting. So I would like to suggest that maybe we table this for a bit, maybe until, um, you know, two weeks out, and then we bring this back up for consideration. So I would like to make a motion to table at this time. We have a motion to table, uh, and it's from Council Member Lane and a second from Council Member Ellinger, is that correct? Did you second? Mr. Ellinger's made a good point. We will be on break, so let's, uh, table until bringing this back up at the first meeting in January. All right, so the motion is to table it until the first meeting in January. That motion is debatable only insofar as- Timing. ... we discuss the timing of the tabling. So please constrain your comments there. Council Member Stinnard, then Council Member Lawless. I see on our, on our future council schedule, we have a Committee of the Whole meeting. Could we, would it be more appropriate to table it to that meeting so we can discuss it in Committee of the Whole? Uh, yes, that would be very- First week in January. ... I can sit with that, that would be fine. 12th, I believe it is, or -- or 18th. It's on our council's calendar we adopted. Mayor. Uh, Council Member Lawless is, was next, and then Council Member Cro- Crosby. I think. Right. Um, I think if we put it on the agenda, we're gonna have the whole break to review it before it has a vote and discussion. Is that correct? No. If it ... Well- Is that what we're talking about then? I state your point, Council Member Ehlinger. No, it's just about 20. Yes. The -- the only, the only issue to discuss right now is question of whether we, we table it until the first meeting in January, first council, first Cal meeting. Which is the 19th of January. First Cal meeting in, in January or, or to some other time. It's- Mayor. Council Member James. Um, can I offer January 12th, the Inner Gov meeting, as opposed to the Cal meeting, and put it back into the Inner Gov for discussion? Um, you can move to amend the motion to table to that effect, if you so like. Okay. Uh, would you accept that amend, that ... Do I need to ask him to accept the amendment to his motion? Well, if he would agree to do so on a friendly basis, fine. Otherwise, you'd have to make a motion. That way, he gets the opportunity to speak with his comments. All right. I, I'd like to- Right now, we have a motion on the floor to table it until the Cal meeting on January 18th, 19th. Can you change that to the 12th? Now you have a motion to amend that to change it until the, the Intergovernmental Committee Meeting in January. Is that correct? On January 12th. On January 12th. Is there a second to that motion to amend? Hearing none, it dies for lack of a second, so we're back to Council Member Lane's motion to table. Please confine your debate only to the timing at which it's being tabled. Any ... Council- But no one said that. Council Member Meyers. Thank you, Mayor. I think I agree with the timing of the, of the January 19th Committee of the Whole Meeting. Is that all I can say? Tha- that's pretty much all you can say. Okay. Any further discussion? Those then in favor of Council Member Lane's motion to table the ... Council Member Cross. I just had a question on the time of that meeting on the 19th. It's at 11 on the council, on the one we, it's on the, the docket for adoption. Thank you. All right. Those in favor of tabling, uh, the resolution until the Cal meeting on January 19th, please indicate by saying I. Opposed, no. No. No. Um, the motion carries with Council Members James and Gordon dissenting. All right, so that takes us ... Um, is there anything further on the Intergovernmental Committee? No, we didn't talk about anything else. All right. That concludes then our presentations and we're now ready to go to, um, council reports. And the first person I have on the list is Council Member Stinnett from a moment ago when... A- all right, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Just a few announcements. One, um, the Building Inspection Task Force, um, had their first meeting today to get organized and to kinda give a, uh, list of things we'll be covering. If any council member would like to be included on the Building Inspection Task Force, uh, distribution list, please let us know, as well as anyone in the public who's interested in, in our, in our work on the Building Inspection Task Force, just let me know. Our next meeting will be January the 14th at 3:00 PM in the fifth floor conference room. I also wanna say a special thanks, I don't see Commissioner Taylor here, but ... Oh, I see her in the back. We had a, you know, a lot of times, we hear about the things our solid waste workers don't do on trash pickup day, but today, I wanna, um, compliment one of our workers, um, Tony Wesley, about going above and beyond his duty today, uh, in my district. And, you know, a lot of times, we'll see trash not fully going to the trucks. Well, he took time out to get out of his truck, take a brim, pick it up like you're supposed to do, and when someone stopped him and asked him, "Why are you doing that?" Well, th- though, to thank him for doing that, and he says, "Just my job, I do it every time." But a lot of people don't. So I wanna make sure he gets a special thanks because that's, that's going above and beyond, doing what we've asked most of our employees do. I also wanna send our condolences to our Director of Building Inspection, Dewey Crow, who lost his father yesterday. Uh, I know, uh, anytime you lose anyone in your life, it's a, it's a hard time to go through, but we wanna send our condolences to Dewey Crow, who is our Director of Building Inspection. And then last but not least, again, council members, we have our bonding workshop, again, hopefully concluding this Thursday at 4:00 PM in the fifth floor conference room. And again, the items we're considering have been our items that we've approved in our budget the last two years, that we're deciding on whether or not to bond now or later. Uh, it's not a matter of approving the projects, we've already approved 'em. It's a matter of when do we bond those projects. I think there was some confusion in the media over the weekend, in the newspaper, about what projects we're considering. These are just projects that we've already approved. We're just deciding when to bond 'em. So just wanna make sure everyone understands that, who would like to attend that meeting on Thursday. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lawless. Um, I have a ... First of all, I'd like to move for the Eldermere Avenue parking permit, residential parking permit, and the 700 block of Melrose and Beaumont Avenue parking permit requests be sent to the Services Committee for consideration. Second. Have a motion by Council Member, um, Lawless and a second by Council Member Gordon. Any discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Oppose, no. Motion carries. Thank you. Um, I'd also like to announce that there's an Ellsford, uh, Neighborhood Association meeting at the Woodland Christian Church, um, across from Woodland Park at 7:00 this evening. Um- ... the Kentucky Ballet Theater is doing the Nutcracker at the Opera House December 11th, 12th, and 13th. And, um, most importantly, I would like to, uh, remind people that this is, uh, International World AIDS Day December 1st of every year. At 5:30 there will be a gathering at several different places and ending up at Triangle Park for a, um, and I hope those details are correct. You can get on av- aval.com or, to find out, but, um, or look in the paper. It was in the paper today, but anyway, if we could all remember all the people, um, in our lives and in our community and worldwide that have died from AIDS and are now living with HIV and AIDS and, um, send them our thoughts and thank you. Thanks. Council member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. The, uh, the residents of the Georgetown Street neighborhood and the St. Martin's neighborhood, within the next few days, will find flyers in their doors announcing a meeting on December 10th, seven o'clock in the O'Rear Center of Douglas Park. This meeting is to discuss the changes that are coming to the neighborhoods with the movement of the Bluegrass Community and Technical College to what is now the campus of the Eastern State Hospital. Uh, Council Member James and I have organ- organized this meeting, uh, to bring... to help bring to, uh, to the neighborhoods, uh, information about the ab- about the coming transition, about the opportunities and the challenges that the, uh, uh, that the BCTC campus will, will, will bring, uh, to, uh, to enable residents to see the current plans for, for the new campus, to ask questions, to learn how they can be a part of and involved in, uh, all the, all the planning that's gonna be involved in this. Uh, officials from, from the urban county government, from the Division of Planning, from BCTC, uh, from Urban Collage will be there to, uh, uh, to make presentations, to answer questions. So, uh, when you see those flyers on your doorstep, mark your calendars, please, because this is an important meeting. Again at 7:00 PM at the O'Rear Center in Douglas Park, uh, and we hope to see you there on the 10th. Few other announcements, Mayor. On Saturday, December the fifth, the Meadowthought Neighborhood Association will hold the... it's annual holiday potluck dinner in the community center in the park beginning at 6:30 PM. Uh, wanna encourage everybody to come out and to, uh, and to bring a side dish. The, uh, uh, the main meat course will be provided by the Neighborhood Association. On Monday, December seventh, it's party time in the second district, of course. Georgetown Neighborhood Association, uh, will hold their annual holiday potluck. That's at 6:00 PM in the O'Rear Center in, in Douglas Park. Look forward to seeing everybody, uh, uh, body there. More good food and, and good fellowship. And on the same evening at seven o'clock, the Green Acres Hollow Creek Breckenridge Neighborhood Association will meet in the community center in Green Acres Park. And finally, Mayor, I move approval of the Neighborhood Development Fund list for December one. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Blues and a second by Council Member, uh, Lawless to approve the NDF. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Council Member Blues, I am disappointed. You have told me for the last three years that every day was party day in Second District. All right. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I think our lists are mixed up. Um, I have a motion to... I move to accept the Division of Traffic Engineering's recommendations to lower the posted speed limit to 25 mile per hour on Alexandria Drive between For Sales Road and Viley Road and on Delmont Drive. Second. I believe that will have to be done by way of an ordinance or resolution. Uh, um. Resolution. Pardon, res- resolution. Let me, uh, let me suggest the motion be framed in the context of amending the docket to add a resolution or ordinance as deemed appropriate by the, by the law department to, uh, make those modifications. Okay. I have a motion by Council Member Henson and a second by Council Member Gordon. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. And, um, again, I wanted to thank those of you that are participating in the Celebrity Bell Ringing Challenge on Saturday, this Saturday, December fifth at Walmart Hamburg. Um, I still have two slots available, four o'clock and six o'clock. And thank you, Mayor, for participating. Um- Also, I wanted everyone to know that I will be there at three o'clock and I am determined to meet, beat Council Member Meyers, because he thinks he's gonna have the fullest pot kettle, but I will. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member, uh, Meyers. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'll start with, with, uh, that segue there. Um, I issued a, a gauntlet, I laid down an email to everybody who was on that list and nobody responded. So I just assumed that nobody feels like they're gonna be able to meet the challenge except for, um, Ms. Henson. So, I look forward to that. Um, make sure you come out from noon to one. 12 o'clock to one. Not a minute earlier, not a minute later, and fill my pot up. Um, and, uh, the police chief and the fire chief, they can't wear their uniforms, that's not fair. Okay. Um, secondly, um, we are having an Eighth District, um, holiday or Christmas potluck, and it's going to be Tuesday, 12:15. And it's gonna be at the new community center over in Gainesway. And I have an email address for you for, um, Jeremy Bran to RSVP so we know how many people are gonna be there. I hope everybody in the city doesn't RSVP, but if you're in Eighth District, you're welcome to come and I guess anybody else too, really. His email address is J-E-R-E-M-Y.vann@gmail.com. And then, uh, thirdly, I would like to put into committee, the Mayor's Commission on Mortgage Lending Practices, um, not just their PowerPoint, but the mayor said that they have a final report that they've issued. I'd like to move to put that, uh, report into Services Committee. And one of the focuses I wanna have is, I think there's some recommendations that are in that report that aren't in the PowerPoint. So we can kind of chew on those, but then also look at what we can do legislatively to stop the predator, predatory lending. So, um, so moved. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Meyers and a second by Council Member McCord. I believe you said to refer it to the Services Committee? Yes. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Thank you, mayor. One final thing. Um, Councilwoman Feigl had to leave today. She was here this morning with us, but she is ill and had to go home. She asked me to, um, walk onto the docket for Thursday night. I think everybody got in their box, an ordinance on the, um... Oh, I forgot what it's called here. On the Boards and Commissions Oath. And I had a motion here and I've lost it. Oh, I found it, okay. So I think everybody got that. It was reported out in the September 22nd work session, but the wording was a little bit confusion, a little bit confused, and it was worded as a report out to review rather than put on the docket. And so that's why it didn't get put on the docket already. But everybody has seen this before, but you got another copy in your mailbox, I believe, today. So, um, I move to place on the docket of the Sep- of the December 3rd, 2009 council meeting and ordinance requiring appointees to boards, agencies, and commissions covered by provisions of Article VII of the charter in which require council confirmation for appointment of members to take an oath of office or oath by affidavit, unless exempt by law within 30 days of the council confirmation and requiring that the oath by affidated be, form be submitted to the office of the council clerk within 14 days of completion. So moved. Thank you. Have a motion, second. Any discussion? Council Member Stennet. Council Member Meyers, you may not be the best person to answer this question, but maybe our law department can. So this does apply to each council member as to each board and commission we serve on as well? We'll have to take it multiple times? I assume it refers to us and commissioners and mayor appointees, of course, because I mean, we do take an oath already, and I assume this oath will be administered if someone's on multiple boards here for us, they'll have to do it multiple times? It's been a while since I've looked at the draft, but I believe that would be correct because I think the language is board or commission specific. I think that's correct. So- And one oath will not suffice for every board you serve on, you'll take it multiple times for that particular board? I believe that's correct. I don't have the draft with me, but we can, I can confirm that for you. If you can, before we vote on it on the docket. I will certainly do that. Thank you. I, I, I have a question as a follow-up to that. When you said the oath was specific or the, the commissions were spec- specific, it only lists those that are subject to the provisions of Article VII and that which are not, um, exempt by law. I think what Council Member Stennet, as I understood what he was asking, was the actual language of the oath. If, if the oath is applicable- Okay. ... to the board or commission to which you're appointed, would you have to take the oath even though you took the oath of office to be a council member when you took your seat? Well, I think the oath is in here and it, it doesn't say anything. It's not specific about a board or a commission. The oath is in here. Okay, let me... I'm, I need to take a look at it. I think the second paragraph deals with that. "I will discharge the best of my ability the duties and responsibilities of the board, agency, or commission to which I've been appointed." Council Member, uh, Gordon. So then council members could all, who serve on boards, could all take it at once since it's nonspecific? I believe that would be correct. Thank you. Anything further? The -- You have a motion. Restate your motion for me, if you would, please. Okay, there's ... I think there might be one question before. Oh, okay, if you'd- Okay. ... restate the motion for me. I move to place on the docket of the December 3rd, 2009 council meeting, an ordinance requiring appointees to boards, agencies, and commissions covered by the provisions of Article 7 of the chapter, of the charter, and which require council confirmation for appointment of members to take an oath of office or oath by affidavit, unless exempt by law, within 30 days of council confir- confirmation. All right. And requiring that the oath of, by affidavit form be submitted to the office of council clerk within 14 days of completion. So moved. And Council Member Blue seconded that motion, as I recall. All right, any discussion? Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Logan, one thing that you might think about as we ... and, and Council Member Gorton's comment may have resolved this, but obviously we sit in on different meetings for which we are not appointed, and sometimes we use, we serve to fill out the quorum there. So, uh, I guess I still have some concerns about how this works, and, and maybe we should think about how it might apply in different circumstances as well. I mean, I, I think, um, uh, uh, I think there's some issues maybe we still need to resolve about it. Um, beyond that, um, um, I, you know, I think that we all take an oath of office to be council members as well, and I don't particularly know what this is gonna do over beyond that. But, uh, I certainly think that with folks who are new to our, one of our boards or commissions, it would be, uh, uh, certainly appropriate to have them sort of signify that they are sort of bound by a higher duty by serving as well. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any further discussion on the motion? I- Council Member Myers. Can I ask a question? Um, Mr. Martin, you said that, that we as council members serve on boards and commissions that we're not appointed to for purposes of quorum. I'm not sure Of course. Well, today, in intergovernmental committee, I think Council Member Lane may have- Standing committees doesn't have anything to do with this. So this is not what the standing commi-committed committee? No, it's with boards and commissions. Okay. Well, this just got- Agencies, yeah. ... passed out, so it's ... so, uh, you know, we're, uh, I don't think I even have a copy of it in front of me, so, um, so this is just with a, uh, an appointed board or commission, but not one of our council committees? Right. Okay. Thank you. Anything further? Those then in favor of adding that item to the docket for Thursday evening, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, I think we're ready for Council Member Martin's report. Thank you, Mayor. The Southland Christmas tree lighting wa- ceremony will take place, uh, this Friday, December 4th, uh, starting at 5:30 PM. Uh, come by for, uh, apple cider, hot chocolate, cookies and stuff, and the tree lighting will be at 6:30. Uh, Christmas and holiday events at the Beaumont branch at the Lexington Public Library will be on December 21st from 2:30 to 3:30 PM, and kids, uh, ages five to 12 are invited for the Holiday Fun Day, and we'll have a chance to make some decorations and things. And for middle schools, uh, uh, kids on December 23rd from 2:30 to 4:30 PM, they can play Wii games and have snacks and drinks and things like that. Uh, also at the Beaumont Center Family YMCA, uh, is having a drop-and-shop day on December 5th from 1:30 to 5:00 PM, um, so you can drop your kids off for Christmas, uh, shopping and holiday shopping. An activity for your kids includes gym games or swimming, crafts, and a light snack. Also, on December 12th, uh, the Reindeer Ramble 5K run, uh, will be at the Beaumont Center YMCA, and, uh, you can, uh, come by and support the YMCA Campaign for Kids. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of thank yous. Uh, first to the Downtown Lexington Corporation, and to, uh, Mayor, you, the administration, and all the employees that, uh, put on the, the holiday festivities on Friday. I thought it was extremely well done, and, you know, a full day of, of, uh, activities and, and it was coordinated very, very well, and, um, my appreciation goes out to everybody that, that served that day. Um, and, you know, as, as we have talked around here, I think it's really important, we have a lot of folks from the community sitting in the room, uh, today that, you know, we need to all understand this community, the severity of what's happening budget-wise. Um, it's extremely easy to get tied to, um, our particular areas of government, our particular areas of, uh, the city, and specific projects that are, are very important to all of us. And the bottom line to it is, is that over the next couple of weeks, this government has gotta take up a, a major issue, and, uh, it's gonna be very painful, and there is a, a great deal of misunderstanding tha- that takes place when you get into times like this. And so I think Council Member Stennet said it, but, but you may have said it a little quickly, so I wanna go back and make sure that, that it sticks. As it relates to this bonding issue, um, which I know that many folks, uh, are, are watching very carefully, every single project that is on that list has been approved. Every single project on that list has been approved by this government to do. Okay? And some of those projects have been on for two years, but the bottom line is, there is no debate up here whether these are good, bad projects, or anything like that. But the, the criteria for what is happening on Thursday is, can money be expended between now and April? Do you bond it right now, or do you bond it a little bit later? And the criteria comes in, can you spend the money, can you get things moving between now and April? The other night, we had an issue where, uh, m-my... ... area of government and my area of the community and trails got axed. A million dollars out of the, this budget for, that we put in for the 2010 budget solely because we could not spend the money between now and April. So I think what's really key, and I, I see all the Facebook stuff. I know e- what everybody's passion is and I know why the majority of y'all are in this room today. You need to understand that as we take this discussion up, that people are very, very committed to that list. And this government is very committed to doing what needs to be done, uh, and understands the big picture. Uh, but the bottom line to it is, the criteria for Thursday comes down to, can you do something between now and April? Can that money be expended? Can you get projects started? So and just as we go, I want the, I want the community to understand what's going on up here, and that the community understands that we're all in this together. Every single member of this community is in this together. And it's, uh, it's the community that has a multimillion dollar shortfall. And there are some very painful choices that have to come, uh, down the pike and what I'm, would ask for from you all, uh, is not patience, not understanding, not tolerance, but rather solutions. And I would ask that the public, private citizenry sec- sectors all come together and start looking for creative ways to solve the problems that we have rather than just lobbying for the one thing that's really important to you. Uh, a- and that is really key. Uh, so I wanted to take an e- a little bit of extra time to speak to that because I don't think the general population understands the severity of what we're in. I don't think many inside government understand the severity of what we're, what we're in. But it is a really, really big deal, but, but the upshot is this, we live in an amazing city that is seeing an amazing amount of, of public and private dollars committed to the infrastructure and to the building blocks of being a successful city. I have no doubt that we will come out of this thing, uh, whenever the economy rebounds, uh, so far ahead of our competition as a city. But what we have to realize is, when do we do certain things, how we do certain things. There are a lot of, of moving parts on this, and I would just ask everybody to educate themselves and to work with us, uh, and work with each other to, to make sure that when this economy does turn, that we are put in a position to win. Um, the last thing I'll say in my last 30 seconds, I am glad that we postponed, um, the changes to the way the council works until, um, January because I'm very supportive of, of changing that, uh, and I, Council Member Lane, you mentioned, "Hey, I think that the, the mayor should run these meetings." Um, and, and I have maybe a different opinion and the reason why is, Mayor, I wanna compliment you on what happened at the beginning of this meeting, to have folks from the Lincoln Center, for you to see an opportunity while you were at a mayor's conference to go and get these folks and showcase ... And I think the keyword he said was, it was very strategic how, how he was taken around today, and he picked up on that. Um, I really do believe that that's the role o- of our mayor is to be the CEO, uh, to be that chief cheerleader, and sometimes being mired in the minutiae of these, these, uh, council work sessions is maybe not the best use of your time. But, but I wanna applaud you for what, what happened today 'cause that's big stuff and that is showcasing us in the right way. So thank you for, for doing that and, uh, uh, and as I say, we all need to work together and play to our strengths rather than just our weaknesses. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few announcements. On Wednesday December 2nd, Stewart Hall Neighborhood Association will be having their meeting at 5:00 PM at 141 Prosperous Place. On Monday December 7th, uh, Fairway at Lakeside Neighborhood Association will be meeting at the Eagle Creek Library, it's 7:00 PM. And then also I have several announcements regarding fire and some fundraisers that they're having, uh, for Toys for Tot, for Toys for Tots. Um, this Thursday, December 3rd, they are doing the dating game and they will have their firefighter calendars on sale. This is at 8:00 PM at the Blue Moon. On Saturday, December 12th, they will be having their Chuck Williams auction where Joby Hall will be the auctioneer and this is at the Walgreens in the Id- Idle Hour Shopping Center, and that's at 1:00. And then, um, Saturday, December 19th is the actual toy giveaway, which will also be at the Walgreens in the Idle Hour Shopping Center, and I would encourage ... I know, um, Chuck and I have always, uh, volunteered on the 19th to help hand out toys, and I would encourage other council members to please sign up for a shift. It is, um, a lot of fun and extremely rewarding. So we'll get you a sign-up sheet if anybody can come help that day. Uh, lastly, I just want to tell Council Members Henson and Meyers that game is on. I'll take the 4:00 shift '- ... 'cause I'll be following you all and, uh, I definitely am up to the challenge to get my bucket more filled than you. So 4:00 will be my time slot and, uh, it sounds like a good challenge. Thank you. Thanks. Uh, Council Member James. Thanks, Mayor. Um, Mayor, I wanna thank you and, um, I think Council Member Lawless and Vice Mayor Gray, um, were at the East End Christmas tree lighting last night, which was really fun. Um, very ... It's a beautiful tree that's there. I wanna thank Penny Ebel, Parks and Rec, the Fire Department, um, and everyone that was involved in, in making that happen, as well as the Legacy Center, Sherry, Steve, um, Beth, um, the William Wells Brown, uh, Community Center, making good use of that Parks and Rec facility over there. They helped to create ornaments with the children. Um, and Louella, a constituent in the First District helped to, um, make the cutest little street signs you've ever seen. They look just like our street signs and they're the ornaments that are hanging on the tree, so, um, very phenomenal night and, um, when I heard one gentleman, um, with his children, um, come up, he came up a little bit late, but I think they were going for some hot chocolate and some hot cider in their little Santa straws and he said, "We've never had anything like this in this side of town. Um, this is, this is great." ...when he said that, I knew that it, it was the right place, so appreciate that. Um, wanted to, uh, wanted to announce the meeting that will be at 6:30 tonight at the Phoenix Building, third floor. Um, it's the Short and 2nd Street Resident and Neighborhood Association Conversion. Um, it's th- s- Short and 2nd Street Conversion Meeting. Uh, this is where citizens can learn about what, how that's going to affect them, um, and give feedback. Um, hopefully, I don't know the format of the meeting, but I hope that you have the opportunity to give feedback as what you think, uh, your concerns would be about that conversion, and that's at 6:30 at the Phoenix Building on the third floor. Um, also, council members, I wanted to, um, I sent you all an invitation for the Stakeholder Transportation Meeting, which is next week, and just to refresh you and your aides of what that is, we've had some questions. Based on, um, some things that dealt, we dealt with with LexTran and the paratransit issue, um, some of us from the Disabilities Commission visited Washington DC as part of the Easterseals, um, mobility, uh, transportation project that they have and we learned some techniques of, um, coordinating, um, transportation for pr- paratransit and other types of, um, alternative transportation needs. And part of that is c- bringing all of the public transportation providers together to talk about what they have, what vehicles they have, what hours they operate, um, what are their service areas, and what type of assistance do they need, and what kind of, um, new programs do we need to be able to fill the gaps? So the meeting that's gonna be on Thursday, December the 10th from 10 to 12, fifth, fifth floor conference room, is that stakeholder meeting. So what we've asked is for those public transportation folks to share information with us about vehicle capacity and their hours of operation, funding and such, so that we could try to coordinate to make sure that our public transportation is doing exactly what we need it to do. LexTrans is the federal, um, designated, um, recipient of funding that could help with some of these things like after-hours transportation or trans- paratransit transportation outside of the fixed route area, and we want to be able to find the entities that can do that successfully and do that for, um, the most effective use and best use of the money. So we're having this meeting to coordinate, to start this conversation happening. We feel like there's all these transportation groups that happen, that talk about regional transportation, but we need to bring them around, um, bring them around the table so that we can get that communication going. So I hope that council members can come, or send your aides. We'd love to, for you all to be able to be a part of that moving forward, um, and I'll be happy to report out after the meeting as to how that went and what our plan will be going forward. Um, also wanted to thank the mayor and Shea for allowing me to be part of meeting with Adrian last night at, um, the gentleman from the Lincoln Center. Um, it was great to be around the table. I felt like a big nincompoop 'cause I don't really play an instrument very well, um, and I was with a bunch of like a cellist and, um, Everett McCorvey and Doug Martin and, uh, Gene Woods and all these real savvy folks, and, um, it was pretty cool to be there. We met at Bakers 360, had a great dinner and a great discussion about jazz and culture and art, um, here in Lexington, and I just, I left there with my eyes wide open like, "Well, m- maybe Lexington does have something cultural and artistic after all," um, and I just needed to be sat down and, um, around those folks to, to understand that, so I'm very excited about those opportunities. And I don't know how much time I have left, um, but I did wanna take this opportunity that, um, to say I am a, a bit disappointed in the lack of support, um, for, uh, Dr. Jackson's presentation. Um, I hope that we can reevaluate that and I hope that we can come back to that at some point. I hope that you will think on it and think on your decision today and think on your support, um, for that, for that initiative, and, um, just think about that a bit. And also, as far as economic strategy and the bond meeting on Thursday, I do think that we are the change we w- wish to see and we need to start making our, making our steps towards supporting things that support economic development and growing the pie. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I just wanna send my thoughts and prayers to Melinda Melbourne, who's a member of our council staff. Uh, her grandfather died on Thanksgiving Day and that family is, is mourning him. And then, I know that several of us have been keeping in touch with Council Member Beard, and I am hopeful that we will see him back Thursday night. That'll be a good... Thank you. Thanks, Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, well, for those of you who are here for public comment, I wanna give you hope. I am the last one to give a council report. And it's gonna be quick. We've got th- the Economic Development Committee, or Task Force is meeting, um, Thursday, and, uh, this is just a reminder to council members that any recommendations in terms of criteria for the, um, for the consultancy that Commerce Lexington has proposed, uh, please b- be prepared to, uh, offer those on Thursday. Yeah, George. Hi. Can I ask you a question? Yes, sir. You had a two-page document- Yeah. ... in the last meeting. Yeah. Could you email that to all the council members? You bet. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Does any other council member wish to report? I just have a couple things that I wanna say pretty briefly here, uh, and it's follow-up on what Council Member McCord said a few moments ago. There were a number of people who worked really hard to make Friday evening a bid- big success. Uh, particularly the folks in parks who spent a lot of time over the course of the last couple of weeks getting, uh, all the decorations up. That's very hard, tedious work. They did a great job. ... um, folks in police, as well as folks in the streets, roads, and forestry, and an assortment of other places pull together to make that work well. As you get feedback from, um, your constituents about relocating it from the new courthouse area down to Triangle Park, I'd be interested in- in hearing what you have to say. The idea was to try to move it a little closer to the retailers and- and I hope that was well received. Second, the last couple of days, uh, that- that I've had a chance to spend with Adrian Ellis had been pretty remarkable. Um, he- he is an impressive individual in his own right, and certainly everything associated with the Lincoln Center in New York is, uh- uh, absolutely at the highest end of the performing arts. But I think it's safe to say he was impressed with what he saw in Lexington, Kentucky, and I can assure you that I was. We had the opportunity to see a whole host of, uh- of incredibly talented people and performers as we were on the UK campus and as we talked with some of our- our local musicians and- and folks who've been involved in- in the Lyric. And, um, I- I want to tell you, we've got some remarkable talent in this community that I think all too often we don't appreciate, and sometimes it takes somebody from the outside coming here to- to help us appreciate the- the depth and breadth of the talent that we have in a number of different areas, and in this particular instance, uh, in- in the jazz, uh, area specifically. So, um, I look forward to his coming back. I think there's some exciting opportunities there. What form they take remains to be seen, but I'll look forward to getting them back... ge- getting their report back from him fairly soon, and I'll let you know how that goes. Uh, that concludes all I have to say. I have 21 people who have indicated a desire to speak, so we'll just take it at the top and work our way down. Some have indicated a desire to allocate their time to other individuals, and so if that is the case, when I call your name, if you would just let me know to whom you wish to allocate your time, and we'll- uh, we'll move on down the list. Uh, first name on the list is Rob Morris. Mr. Morris, uh, you- you have til Deborah Hensley, is that... okay. Uh, Jessica Case? Ms. Case? If you'll step to the podium, you'll have three minutes, and then Clark Case, if you'll stand by over here near the podium, please. Hello. My name is Jessica Case, and I live at 421 West 2nd Street in Council Member James' district. Um, however, I own a business in Council Member Blues' district. This business, Buster's Billiards and Back Room, is a pool lounge and a thousand-person-capacity music venue. We are located in the old Tar Distillery Warehouse building, and we are proof that the Lexington Distillery District can work. We have breathed new life into a building that has, since its construction, been an integral part of our history and social fabric, and when the Distillery District realizes its full potential, it will be full of businesses that have done the same thing. And we all know this is a good thing, but as Mr. McCord said, we aren't here today because there is some question about whether the Distillery District is a good thing. We are here because you all are faced with some tough choices about funding, and as a business owner who is dealing with challenges brought out by these tough economic times, I completely understand your position. Today is all about the money. And so I urge you, as you're looking down that long list of projects and trying to decide where to make cuts, that you think about which of these projects will bring this city money in return for the investment that you are being asked to make. And the simple fact is that the Distillery District will bring Lexington money, and in fact, it already is. In renovating the old tar building and outfitting it for Buster's, my husband and I invested three quarters of a million dollars. A substantial amount of this went to local supply businesses and contractors and to licensing fees, a portion of which ended up back in our local government. We spend money with local advertisers and local vendors. We donate our space to local charities so they can raise money for their various causes. But perhaps most important is that we put money back into the community with jobs. We employ more than 30 people, which means that Buster's and the Distillery District are not only providing much needed jobs for Lexington, we are providing a revenue stream in the form of our payroll taxes. Each month, Buster's brings about a thousand dollars in payroll taxes into our local government, and this money is immediate. As soon as a business opens and has employees, it's paying taxes. And if you think about a thousand dollars a month times 12 and then extrapolate that to the number of businesses that can and will locate in the Distillery District once the essential infrastructure is there, say 40 for the sake of argument, you could be looking at almost half a million dollars a year just in payroll taxes. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the economic benefit and the money that the Distillery District will bring into Lexington as a result of this project. Ms. Case, you have about 15 seconds. So please, when you're thinking about the money, think about which projects on your list will in fact bring money back into our local government and keep the 3.2 million in bonded funding for the Distillery District. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Clark Case, and then Ms. Mosnick, uh, I believe has already left. Uh, Sharon Acres, if you'd stand by. Mister, come on up. Uh, and Mr. Case, go right ahead. Ladies and gentlemen of the council, thank you for allowing us to speak here today. My name is Clark Case. I'm the other owner of Buster's Billiards and Back Room. And as Mr. McCord says, I don't envy the position that you're in. I know that choices have to be made. ... and questions have to be answered. They're gonna have to be cuts and your constituents in the entire city are gonna ask, "Why did X get funding? And why did Y not?" If not, another worthy and important project, why the Distillery District? I offer you three quick reasons why the Lexington Distillery District should remain on the bonded project list. First, the Lexington Distillery District is already a reality. Busters is proving that. Having been opened less than three months, we have already sold more than 10,000 tickets to events. And that doesn't count all the free shows and charity events that our venue has hosted on any number of the seven days a week we've been open since September 4th. More than 20,000 people have already come for entertainment, charity events, fundraisers and other civic functions to the Lexington Distillery District. And that's only accounting for one enterprise that's been opened three months in a blighted area with little or no infrastructure. If anything could corroborate the reality of what the Lexington Distillery District and Barry McNese's vision for that Lexington Distillery District are, I can't imagine what more than those numbers would do. In addition to the existing reality, the Distillery District has tremendous potential. Busters stands at the future gateway between downtown and the Distillery District. But the infrastructure support will extend that reality that Busters has provided to dozens of other enterprises. The plans are there, the studies are there, and a significant number of other business owners are waiting for infrastructure to populate the district with business revenue. In addition to reality and potential, the Distillery District offers Lexington a chance for originality. Something different and compelling that can attract visitors and revenue from some o- uh, from some of our nearby cities such as Louisville, Cincinnati and even Nashville. Cities whose residents aren't generally obliged to travel to Lexington to spend their enterm- entertainment dollars. I think one story illustrates this best. When the Silver Sun Pickups, a band you may or may not have heard of, were playing, planning their fall tour, they wanted to play one show in Kentucky. Luckily, they chose Lexington and the Distillery District in Busters over Louisville's m- mid-sized music venue. And when they played to a sold-out crowd in our back room in September, the lead singer, as rock stars sometimes do, said, "Hey, Lexington, how are you all doing?" And there was a huge roar across the crowd. The singer then followed that up by saying, "Anybody out there from Louisville?" And the roar was even louder. That was something I didn't expect, but it's already happening. And the Distillery District presents you all that opportunity. Thank you. Sorry to go over. Thank you. Ms. Akers, I see a note where you've wanted to yield your time to Mr. Kryder. So Mr. Kryder, you'll have, uh, six minutes. I'm Nathan Kryder. I'm 449 West 6th Street, uh, in the First District. Hi, Ms. James. Hi, Council. Hi, Mayor. Um, I have to start by, uh, saying after m- Mr. McCord, Council Member McCord's comments, I'm thoroughly confused. Um, um, so it, it seemed like there, there was an implication that, that there was really no sense in, in all of us, um, trying to make the case or prove the case, uh, for the Distillery District, that it was really about timing and, and, and can, is it shovel-ready between now and, uh, April. So, uh, i- is that m- maybe since, uh, Council Member McCord's not here, maybe Mr. Stennet, you can, you could answer that, Mr. Stennet? Um, is that, is that what he was saying? Th- this is your public comment time. It's usually not a, a dialogue back and forth. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. If the council doesn't mind, I'll address it. They don't want me to, so... Okay, I'm sorry. I just, I just didn't know if it was, if it, if this was, you know, worth all this effort or not. I wanted to clarify that first. But anyway, what I wanted to say to you today, I, I will, will go ahead and plead the case. Um, uh, I just want to talk a little bit about, um, you know, the creative class, the, the, the case for this. And, and what I can speak, I think firsthand, uh, about is really the overwhelming community support that this project has. Um, a couple years ago when this, uh, uh, project, when Barry and, and, and the Herald Leader kind of, uh, did the first kind of articles on this project, um, I was at a point in my life, um, 33, I've got two young kids, firmly rooted in Lexington, grew up here, have, uh, parents and grandparents here. And, but at the same time, uh, was looking at also to get out. So I had one firm rooted, the other firm trying to convince the other foot to, to get out to a more interesting, fun, dynamic city, DC, San Francisco, or even smaller cities like Boulder. Um, uh, and Richard Florida, uh, who I know Mayor and some of you guys, uh, uh, follow, um, made a, an important point that, um, for people in my generation, we don't decide, uh, we don't make the decision of where we would like to work or necessarily what industry. It's all about the city, because we may not like the job that we get in a city, and we may want to change that after a year, after two years. We might change, we might have five jobs in, in five years. So it's really about locating, picking a city and, and sticking to it and, and, you know, and, and becoming entrenched there. And so, uh, when I found out about the Distillery District, I decided I'm gonna stay here. And not only gonna stay here, I'm gonna do everything I can to make this project happen, because I'm not gonna sit here and complain about Lexington any longer. I'm going to, uh, start doing something about it. So, um, the first thing I did is I introduced myself to Barry. Uh, shortly thereafter, I, um, started a Facebook group. The Facebook group within a month or two was at over 3,000 members, which to my knowledge is the largest, uh, Facebook group in all of Lexington, save anything to do with UK basketball, of course. So, um, that was kind of the first thing. The second thing is, um, I asked Barry, uh, if, uh, if we could maybe put some movers and shakers together and start a steering committee. ... um, and while I won't take too much credit for steering the Distillery District one direction or the other, um, what's been, what I think has been remarkable is how many people, uh, very busy, already overworked people, are more than willing to, uh, dedicate their time, uh, towards this project, just because they see the transformative, uh, power that I and others do. And actually, uh, Vice Mayor Gray, if you wouldn't mind, I wanted to... Someone recently forward, uh, forwarded me an email, uh, with a, with a quote from you, uh, with high praises for the Distillery District. And I just wanted to, to say that, uh, with your permission, because I think it kind of encapsulates everything. Is that okay? Okay. First time for everything. "The project has the extraordinary ability to leverage our finest assets, linking the downtown through the civic center, town branch, and the historic fabric of the distilleries, to McConnell Springs, historic homes along the way, and Old Frankfurt Pike. Nothing I've seen in my lifetime in Lexington has this transformative potential... It has enormous potential as an economic engine for Lexington, the region, and state." So, um, and then finally, the last thing I'd like to say is that, um, uh, after the $700 billion stimulus package was, um, passed by Congress, uh, several months ago, there was, uh, some computer geeks had the, uh, uh, the vision to put together kind of a watchdog site. Uh, it was completely open source. Um, anyone could post, uh, projects, uh, that they thought were worthy of stimulus, stimulus funding. There were tens of thousands, and still are, tens of thousands of projects on this site. Uh, there were 900 alone in, uh, Kentucky, uh, and there were probably dozens in Lexington. The Lexington Distillery District, for the first two months that that site was up, was number one most essential in the country. Not in the state, not in the city, in the country. That wasn't even reported in any of the papers, to my knowledge. So the, the support is overwhelming. Um, and as far as the timing, um, you know, I still don't know what the issue is there, but I do believe that there are some shovel-ready things ready to go there. So if it is a matter of timing, I say we still do the $3.2, two million bond, uh, during Thursday's, um, meeting. Uh, um, so I've just, I just would ask that you guy, the, the only thing standing between this project happening, uh, right now, is, is really the council. So I, uh, hope that you guys can, uh, make the decision to make that happen Thursday. Thanks. Thank you. The next speaker is Dan Roland. Mr. Roland, if you'll step forward, and then Griff Van Meter, if you would, uh, come over and stand by, please. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'm here in an informal basis representing a new organization called Progress Lexington. Uh, we have about 60 people on an email list, uh, and our goal is to create and sustain a thriving, diverse, and beautiful downtown community that serves all of Lexington's citizens. Uh, we're in the process of really getting organized. Uh, we don't have a constitution. We're having our constitutional convention, uh, this Saturday. Uh, but, uh, the, the support for, uh, the Distillery District is completely overwhelming. Um, and I thought what I'd do is very quickly go through our six values and explain why, uh, the Distillery District, um, lines up beautifully with each of them. First of all, one, a unique and engaging downtown marked by des- by design excellence. Um, I think the Distillery District has really been a tremendous opportunity for good design. Um, UK students have been, uh, e- engaged in that design. Um, great example of historic preservation, in this case of industrial buildings, and the concept is based on real Lexington history, and not an imagined history of some other place. Um, so I really think that this, uh, lines up very well with that. Second, and I'm, if I'm running out of time, I know the mayor will let me know. Actually, I noticed that he's disappeared. But anyway, uh, uh, I'm, I'm ready to stop any moment, but I, I wanted to particularly mention, as everybody has, uh, the goal of Pro- Progress Lexington, a growing economy based on environmental sustainability. I think this project has direct and indirect, uh, economic effects, which have been explained. Direct because jobs and taxes will be generated. Jessica and Clark Hays have made that point. Indirectly, uh, because the Lexington, uh, Distillery District is already attracting, um, members of Richard Florida's creative class, uh, and will attract more. Uh, recently, uh, I and my wife Wendy and the vice mayor, uh, had a number of former Games Fellows to the, uh, to, to Maine, and we were talking precisely, these are some of the most, uh, brightest graduates, uh, from the University of Kentucky. Uh, some of them were living here, some of them were living elsewhere. Uh, uh, like Nathan, they can live wherever they want, and they repeatedly mentioned the Distillery District as a reason they might come back here. So I think there's a considerable, uh, uh, emphasis, uh, in their minds about, uh, th- this, uh, Distillery District bringing just the kind of people that will create, uh, the, uh, e- economy we want. Uh, then quickly, the other, uh, few goals. Social justice for the creation of jobs at all levels, and enable an accessible arts and entertainment community, uh, a major goal for Pr- Progress Lexington. This obviously is exactly that. Uh, government transparency and accountability, uh, fifth goal of ours. It's, I think, that, uh, Barry and, and everybody involved in the Distillery District have been, uh, uh, very clear and very open about how they explain things. And finally, meaningful c- citizen participation. Uh, I think it's obvious that that's come through- Wow. ... all the way along. Perfect, Dan. Right to the z- right to the zero. Okay, next, uh, Griff, Mr. Griffin Van Meter. Anybody yield to you, Griff? No? Anybody yield to you, or you just got three minutes? You're gonna have to do it shrink wrap into three minutes. Okay. I got a, I got a cheat sheet. Okay. Hello, I'm, uh, I'm Griffin Van Meter. I live on North Limestone. ... as a representative of the North Limestone Neighborhood Association. I'm here to voice our support for the Distillery District Project and hope you do the same. By voting yes to the Distillery District, you are preserving Lexington's significant past and ensuring an exciting future. As Barry McNese pointed out in his article today in BizLexington, the project provides an opportunity for economic development, historic preservation, cultural preservation, intel and redevelopment, sustainability, city branding, quality of life, environmental improvements, tourism, and the power of community. You know, wow, when you hit all those, uh, urban planning buzzwords, you know, you know you got a good project so, uh, he's covered it. Regionally, the revitalized district will connect us to Bardstown, Lawrenceburg, Frankfurt, and Louisville by becoming the focal point to the Bourbon Trail. Currently, the district houses one world-class music venue, The Actor's Guild, five artist studios, one Dog Town, this is Gordon One Dog Town, I know you love dogs, uh, one technological incubator, and with a multi-tenant nonprofit center in the works which Debra will, Debra Hensley, will address. These are the types of businesses that make a city competitive economically and culturally, and, uh, these groups are operating with minimal investment relative to the full scope of the proposed, uh, project, total project. Imagine what can happen and flourish with the proposed inves- oh, with the proposed full investment. I saw an interview with War- Warren Buffet recently, you know, he's pretty good with money, and he a- he was asked how the current economic crisis is affecting his investment strategy and he said, "It's in times like these when it's important to find and invest in great opportunities so you come out stronger on the other side." This is true of our city's tough economic reality and the Distillery District is that great investment opportunity. Just think of you guys are like Warren Buffet, that's pretty cool. Uh, to close, I'd like to be inspired by our late dear friend, Louis "Shoe Shine" Cobb and say something that he might, "To do nothing would be a pity, vote yes, make Lexington a rich city. Help create our story, vote yes, bring the Distillery District its deserved glory." Love, peace, family, and God bless. I gave my extra 30 seconds, uh, Baymeter Pettit my- He said his last. Sorry. He's gonna yield? All right. Ben Mc-, uh, Angela, Angela Barker. Is Angela gonna yield? She's Angela- She's here. She's here? Okay. While we're... Allison Carter is up n- is Allison in the room? Okay, Allison, why don't ch- why don't you go? A little taller. Hi, I'm Allison Carter, I both live and work in Grass Park. Um, I'm representing the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a private, nonprofit organization. And I'd like to take this opportunity to express our support for the Lexington Distillery District. This project is especially important, not only because it revitalizes this special area of the city and brings new life, but because it embraces our unique heritage and promotes the preservation of our historic buildings and landscapes, specifically the McConnell Stone house. We feel that this is a pivotal step in the right direction and we hope that you will join us in supporting this initiative in as many ways as we can. I'd also like to say on a more personal note, um, I moved to Lexington two years ago for grad school at UK and I was very pleased to get to stay here because I fell in love with the city and I think it's a g- a great place to live. Um, but people like me, young professionals, don't stay in cities for, um, our McMansion neighborhoods and shopping centers, we stay because of places like the Distillery District because they're places we can relate to and that we feel like we can get involved with and, um, become personally attached to. So, I just wanna say that I think that this is very important for attracting more people like me so, thank you. Thanks, Allison. Is Angela... Yeah, Angela. Been having d- baby duty too, so we understand. Thank you for staying with us for so long. Well, thank you guys for hearing me and, um, I wanna thank everybody here for all your work for Lexington. You know- Could you pull the microphone down there? There you go. There you go. Thanks. And thanks for that help. Okay, so again, I just wanted to thank everybody for, um, what they do for Lexington. Um, yeah, my name's Angela, I live on Wilgus Avenue, and, um, I just came to support the Distillery District and I just want you guys to do the same. So, that's all I got. Sorry, I'm out of breath. Okay, yeah, well- I've been chasing that one around for the last three hours. Thank you very much. But yeah, thank you, guys. You waited three hours for that, and we appreciate it, thank you. Okay, yeah. Thank you. Uh, there's a lot of insight in that. Uh, Barry Mc- no, Barbara Huber, Barbara's up next. Hi, my name is Barbara Huber. My husband and I have lived in Lexington for 32 years. We own Central Equipment Company, um, which is a 37-year-old company, uh, with 35 employees. We co-own that with, uh, with my husband's brother, and it's a family business. We own two homes and we own property on Red Mile Road, which is where Central Equipment is, we own property on Angliana Avenue and two and a half years ago, we bought into the Distillery District. 'Course I wasn't for it in the beginning because I wanted to do other things with our money. My husband and Barry were, uh, good persuaders in getting me down there with one of my friends that's in the real estate business and, uh, we went through and it was extremely compelling. Uh- It's -- Those buildings are beautiful, and there's a lot to, to offer and, uh, to Lexington for us to build. Um, our partners in the Distillery District are all Kentuckians, but we don't all live in Kentucky. Um, we have partners that live in California. We have partners that live in Arizona, uh, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and then, of course, in, um, Kentucky. Uh, you know, we're here today to ask for your support. Uh, we have lived this for two and a half years. Barry's lived it longer than we have, because my husband and I, and my husband's brother and his wife were, I guess, the last two partners in... I guess, were the ones that said okay, and now it's, uh, it's started. So we're here today to ask for your support. Um, it's a great economic development project for our city. Um, we have lots of interest from, uh, different companies that want to move to the Lexington Distillery District, and, um, they wanna see that our city's behind this. And of course, we do too. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Barbara. Barry McNeese. You'll probably be surprised to know that I'm here to support the PDR program. And, um, and, and truly, uh, although I am here, uh, initially to support the Distillery District bonding request, um, I, I think that it's important as the discussions are being framed and the decisions are being made, uh, that this is not the only vital project that you all are considering, um, and, and that we recognize that. Um, however, I think it is important for us to stand forward for the projects like the Distillery District and Cheapside and Main and Vine, uh, Streetscape, um, that collectively create more than the sum of its parts for our city. Um, the vitality of Main Street and Manchester Street and North Limestone, um, are, are part of a, a rich urban tapestry that we need to propel, uh, Lexington to its, a station that's equal to that of its landscape. Um, I think to the point that, uh, that Jay McCord made, um, I, I don't think that there's anyone... there's not any doubt in anyone's mind that this is a community project, that it's publicly supported. Um, I think that the, the issue that was made more pointedly tonight, um, that was not made in a way, th- um, I think previously to me in, in understanding the timeframe as far as mentioning April. Um, but I would say this. The request that we made for 3.2 million was whittled down from what we considered to begin with absolutely essential $18 million in infrastructure to make this project go. So, so I understand, um, if, if you look at the, at the 45 million that the state is willing to reimburse Lexington for, um, you look at the 18 million that that was taken down to, and you look at a $3.2 million down payment on, on a new direction for both, uh, our city as far as tourism and branding, um, I, I think that it's a, it's a pretty good discount. Um, I think that the, the, the primary things I'd like to call out, um, as, as far as timing, and there, there will be hard copies that w- we'll be leaving in your mailbox tomorrow. I know that you all have a lot to think about, um, in, in these, uh, in, in the next two days. Uh, but the, the detail will show both the timely elements, why it's important right now, and when we last stood before you, um, a year ago, it was important a year ago. Um, as we h- get this close to the World Equestrian Games, um, as we get close to the opportunities, um, to really coalesce the opportunities for Lexington, we're, we're out of time. And I think somebody gave me three minutes. Yes. That's right. Okay. Um, I, I, I really didn't plan that. But I think the, the most timely thing that I wanna share with you tonight, in addition to the paperwork that you'll receive, um, in addition to a bond projection analysis as, as Peggy Henson requested our, uh, at the last bonding workshop, she wanted to know realistically what could you expect as far as repayment. Um, and I, I think it's worth... I'll, I just wanna pull an excerpt, um, as a, as a bit of good news. Um, the initial analysis based on the projections of our existing businesses, in addition to the distiller that I'm gonna tell you more about in just a moment, um, led to this statement. "There is more than enough recoverable tax revenue from the Commonwealth Mixed-Use, uh, TIF program to pay the debt service on the proposed 3.2 million allocation for initial infrastructure improvements in the Distillery District." Um, and, and that's from, uh, TIF projections and analysis done by John Farris and Commonwealth, Commonwealth Economics. Um, I, I think to the point of making this more real, the most compelling thing time-wise right now is that we have a real economic development opportunity. We have a, a real branding opportunity. Um, we're fortunate here tonight, um, I'd, I'd like to ask Scott Pugh to stand up. Um, Scott represents Frontier Brands, uh, which is a, uh, a n- a new interest, um, that you're gonna be hearing more about. Um, as you can see, he's a strapping young fellow. He will be alive next year. So- So I think -- but I think it's important to know that, that the, that the opportunity is immediate. Um, that w- we're not talking about anything that's fanciful or far-fetched or blue sky. Um, we're, we're talking about someone with a great idea that wants to invest in Lexington, uh, wants to do it in our only national register industrial site, and he's here tonight, and he wants to be here next year. But we need your help to make that happen. Um, after April, is, is, is too late, and, and we'll explain more about that in, in what we leave in your mailbox tomorrow. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Barry. Barry did have -- h- he had six minutes yielded. Uh, next is former council member Debra Hensley and, uh, and I think Rob Morris has yielded his time to Debra. Still feels like that first car I had when I was growing up, that Volkswagen where you either freeze or fry, so chambers hasn't changed a whole lot. Vice Mayor Gray, council members, and those attending this meeting today, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak in favor of this 3.2 million bond project for Alexis Distillery District in Town Branch. I come before you today as a member, a former member of the council, who had the honor of representing Irish Town and Davis Bottom and Manchester Streets and delighted to see the activities, the improvements, the opportunities, and the great visionaries that we have with Barry McNiece and Van Meter Pettit. And I come for you, to you today, because I'm also a board member of the Kentucky Conference of Community and Justice. You've heard about the many businesses and proposed projects that are or will locate in Lexington District, but I wanna tell you about one, another one that will provide tremendous community impact and efficiencies. Two years ago, we at KCCJ started to, started the initial planning for a dynamic and one-of-a-kind project, the Kentucky Center for Social Innovation. It will be a multi-tenant center filled with vibrant, socially innovative nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs, environmental enterprises, small business incubators, and socially responsible for-profit companies. Our mission is to help dozens of organizations build their capacity through co-location, collaboration, education, and capacity-building services resulting in more efficient, high impact, and socially responsible sector. We envision an environment where emerging entrepreneurs, artists, new media, environmentalists, innovators, startup businesses, and future leaders are inspired, informed, supported, and celebrated. And for the organizations and individuals, it'll mean much more than sharing space together. It'll be more than pooling limited resources, more than lowering overhead costs, more than community workshops and training. It means leveraging the power, sharing the synergy of the collective, increasing visibility, and enhancing missions. By working together, these organizations will advance and ignite new ideas and offer solutions to some of our society's most pressing problems, challenges, and opportunities. We believe our project, the Kentucky Center for Social Innovation will be a perfect fit in the Lexington Distillery District. A year ago, we signed a letter of intent to occupy 20,000 square feet in the bonded warehouse building. Our project demands a demand, a, a physical space that will be functional, whimsical, inviting, and energizing. This area and the historic building we wish to occupy is our first choice. Today, we are developing our business plan, seeking our financing to make this a reality. The improvements of this area will be critical to our ability to raise the necessary funds to make our project a success. None of us envy the difficult position you are in, facing declining revenues, cuts in services and personnel, budget-busting pension issues, deferring new initiatives. The list, I know, seems endless. So many forces straining the budget, bonding capacity, and bond rating. With each project, we know that you must weigh the community need, the long-term benefits, and identifying which projects will produce a return on the investment and stimulate more private investment and generate more tax revenues. Moreover, a compelling argument has been made, will continue to be made, that this project does meet that criteria. Opportunities do not wait for the best moment. When opportunities knock on the door, we must seize the moment. The Lexington Distillery District and the Town Branch Trail are vital to our community. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to not only clean up a neglected and blighted area, but for it to be a destination point. Your past support has moved this project to a critical place, and it underscores the community's support. We thank you for it, and we ask you to stay with us on this transver- transformational journey as we make history together. God bless you and thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hensley. Uh, is Graham Pole ... Graham is here. As Graham comes up to the podium, I need to announce, Council Member Gordon and I both have commitments that we can't escape. However, we want to let you all know that we will watch your remarks on GTV3 on replay. I'm gonna pass the chair over to, uh, Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Mr. Pole, three minutes. I'm Graham Pole, uh, live on South Hanover Avenue. Uh, I, I don't know how much I can add to what's already been said, and I'll try to be very brief. Uh, my, my, uh, I make my living as an architect helping to people for, helping people to envision, uh, what's possible and to make it, to make it happen. And I've been involved with y- land use planning, with, uh, urban design, written about urban development and urban design for years, um, have, have, have studied and, uh, immersed myself in, in these issue for years, have sat on planning commissions, have- ... have been through enumerable, uh, visioning sessions and seen reams of paper written about all the visions for Lexington as, as, as you all have as well. And this is the first time that I feel that so many of the ideas that have been presented, uh, over the years, for the last 30 years that I've been here, uh, t- really seem to be coming together into a, a fantastic, uh, opportunity. I think the synergy between Town Branch Trail and the Distillery District, uh, is remarkable, is, is, uh, is unprecedented. And I think that, uh, if you can envision the reality of a bikeable, walkable trail running through a, a vibrant, uh, restored historic area, um, it, it's just fantastic. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Van Meter Pettit, and then Patrick Jeffries afterwards. Van Meter Pettit, uh, 155 Constitution Street. Uh, whenever I have to sit through an entire council meeting, I have the greatest sympathy and respect for public service, I have to say. Um, I won't belabor the point, uh, but uh, Councilman McCord discussed time and money, and I wanted to briefly address that to you. How long has Irishtown been waitin' for some investment? How long has Manchester Street been waitin'? How many decades have we had massive, beautiful, rare industrial prop- properties unused? Not making money, not making revenue, not generating business, not holding onto employees. Now we have a partnership that has waited patiently through umpteen months of TIF approval, and if this city doesn't put some skin in the game, how do they expect private entities to risk their own dollars? If you want this to happen, don't say, "Oh, it'll be okay next year." I'm not sure there's anybody on the council, I mean, there are sure people on the administration on the staff that have been here since I started working on Town Branch Trail, but we're, we're knocking on 10 years here, folks. And this is really vital, because right now, there's a symbiotic relationship between the distillery and the Town Branch. And this bonding, which is, of course, reimbursable, unlike most of the bonding you have to contemplate, uh, it also will provide the 20 cents on the dollar for the trail, which means you attract four more dollars for every dollar you put in bonding, and w- you're also attracting donated land. So, you know, during the Civil War, President Lincoln made it, i- it was emphatic that they finish the capital, okay? Let's not just bandage and repair through a crisis. Let's have some spirit. If we wanna ever catch up with Boulder or Madison, all these nice places that we've all traveled to, it starts now. We can't wait, we're decades behind Austin, Texas. If we don't put earnest money in now, we're, we're going to, we're gonna lose these initiatives. They're not gonna last forever. And, um, please understand that we respect the difficulty of the decisions you have to make, but this is about not just patch and repair, but economic development and dynamic economic development, which I think, I mean, a lot of people have given a lot of time to s- sit down here all day. For every one of these people, there are 50 more that would, that would do the same. And so this has enormous popularity. I think the numbers speak for themselves, that you can put 3.2 million of reimbursable dollars in to attract an additional minimum of six, not to mention private investment that has been described. I mean, those numbers are pretty hard to argue with, so please consider that, and consider that time, w- we, you know, I've been working at it for a decade. Irishtown's been waiting about 60 years. You know, shovel-ready is one thing, but time and money are very much of the essence, and we need you to, to seriously contemplate it now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pettit. Patrick Jeffries, Chris Begley next. Members of the council, thank you for your attention. We appreciate you, uh, sticking through this for all these hours. Uh, I started, uh, along with a few others, a business, a tourism-related business focusing on the Bourbon Trail. And we had our first e- event back in October, it's called the Bourbon Chase, and we actually, in fact, Councilman McCord was a participant and we lured thousands of people from 40 states, because of the bourbon-related tourism, to Lexington. And we, we did all this in tough economic times, and we only have one chance to make that first impression to these visitors that come and visit to get them back for next time. Bourbon tourism as a whole is big, and it's getting bigger, and I challenge you to help Lexington secure its place at the head of the Bourbon Trail, because I s- promise you, Louisville is doing everything they can to, to fight for those bourbon tourists. So please help Lexington, uh, secure its place by supporting the bond request. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Chris Begley and then Zena Merkin. Mr. Begley, has he left? Zena Merkin? Yeah, they had to leave. Okay. Is there anybody else? I, I think this exhausts the list. Is there anybody else who would like to speak on this topic? Seeing none- Motion to adjourn. Second. Have a motion to adjourn, second- Second. All those, all those in favor? I asked, I didn't see anybody came up. All those in favor of adjourning, say, "Aye." Aye. All those opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.